Riding Your Horse Along the Edge of a Sword
by silversurf4
Summary: Continues where Hiding Amongst the Flames left off. Not essential you read that first, but helpful. Crews & Reese thru out. Thanks to my beta - Jo Taylor for bringing order to the chaos. Rated M for language & sexual situations Complete 11 Apr 2010
1. Chapter 1 Second Grade

_This story picks up where "Hiding Amongst the Flames" left off. While it is not essential that you read that one first, it does make things clearer and smoothes out the flow and order of the story. And if you feel the impulse to review, I welcome it. I only get better with help and constructive critique. Thanks -- Surfer_

**Second Grade**

**How sad that people ignore the near and search for truth afar. – Zen saying**

There were times when Charlie Crews felt Dani Reese and he were so in synch it was scary; he hardly noticed an inch of daylight between them. And then there were times like these…

Currently, they were comparing second grade experiences in an effort to spark his flagging memory and aid in their pursuit of the conspiracy wall suspects, but right now - it was just making him feel really old. Ostensibly to assist, Dani had brought to his house a box of things she'd dug up from her parents' garage. It contained an array of memorabilia from her childhood; report cards, Little League ribbons, some press clippings her mother kept and the 5" x 7" school photo, which he now held in his hands and stared at. On the reverse, Roya Reese had written neatly in indelible marker "1988, Dani – Age 8" and it mocked him.

Charlie remembered 1988; it was the year he got his license, the year he learned to drive; the year he bought and placed condoms in his wallet on the off chance he got lucky. And Dani Reese was eight years old and in pigtails.

Clinically, mathematically, Charlie knew that he was eight years senior to Reese; sometimes nine because his birthday was in February and hers was not until August. But eight years between adults in their late 20's to mid 30's - was a whole lot different than it is between kids, he swallowed hard at the thought.

It was precisely the difference between second grader Dani Reese with huge dark eyes, grinning broadly in pigtails with a gap where her two front teeth were still coming in and a gangly freckled tenth grade Charlie Crews with a borrowed car and condoms in his wallet he still hadn't found a use for. It made him feel kind of dirty to think about it; their age difference and the naughty things he did nightly to the girl in this photo. He shook off the thought physically like a dog ridding itself of rainwater.

"Crews, focus dammit," his insistent younger partner turned lover, barked at him.

"What was the question again?" he returned with a dull stare and her eyes narrowed. "Sorry, my mind wandered."

"Orange underwear?" she questioned with raised brows.

"Uh, no," he gulped hard and shook his head vigorously, but added nothing further.

Dani Reese was however a student of human nature and one damned perceptive cop and she could tell something was not right with her partner. "What is it Crews? Spit it out."

Charlie cocked his head and examined her. Could their relationship stand any more scrutiny he wondered. Then assessing she would drag it out of him eventually he capitulated and unburdened himself.

"Do you ever think about how much older than you I am?"

Dani snorted a short laugh in response. "Only when you are leaving me in the dust chasing a bad guy." But when Charlie didn't laugh back she realized he was somewhat serious.

"Come on Crews. You can't be serious?" But his look told her he was.

"So what, now you're freaked because of looking at some pictures of me as a kid? I got news for you Crews, I think I broke all those carnal knowledge rules before you even got laid for the first time. It's not like we're kids." But he continued to look from her to the photo and red crept up his throat to his face.

"Look," she said, "gimme that," taking the photo from him. "I'm not seven…"

"Eight," he injected. She glared at him and continued.

"I'm not eight anymore and neither are you. So stop worrying about that photo and think about what we are trying to think about - now," she ordered.

"But all I think about sometimes is you," he confided softly.

"Christ, Crews," she sighed. "Don't do this now. We're working remember? On your case? Trying to figure out who put you in jail for murders you didn't commit?" She sighed again when the expression on his face flickered but didn't change.

She had a soft spot for his "moments" – those rare times when Charlie seemed to doubt himself, doubt his suitability for her. Normally, Crews was solid, stable, unshakeable, the bedrock of their pairing; but very rarely a chink in his armor would show and she'd have to shore him up. It wasn't something she felt any good at, but he was worth the effort.

"Honestly, with all the shit we are up against, this is what bugs you?"

Then for some unexplainable reason, Charlie smiled softly. Maybe she was getting better at this, or maybe he was just screwing with her, which he had been known to do.

"So you're just fucking with me?" she smiled back at him tentatively.

"No…. but you just said "we" again - three times in under a minute," he grinned. "And that makes me happy for no reason."

She turned away pretending to be pissed and Charlie approached quietly, wrapping his long, strong arms around her and leaned down to nuzzle her neck.

"You're not worried I won't be able to keep up with you?" he teased, whispering the question against her ear and jaw line, pausing to plant little kisses there.

"Not likely," she demurred, "not if your performance in the bedroom is any indication, hot shot." She could feel his smile against her neck even as his teeth lightly nipped at the sensitive skin between her neck and shoulder.

"I told you we need to focus," she chastised him without any real weight behind her threat. It sounded weak even to her.

"I am focused," Charlie promised as his hands slid lower, down her front over her jeans, working his way over her delicate ticklish spots, ones he'd memorized and knew his way around by touch in the dark.

"On the case, Crews," she ground her teeth trying to retain some degree of control although her body was rapidly betraying her and her precious self control was unraveling under her skilled partner's touch.

"One thing being older is supposed to mean is you are more disciplined, Charlie."

She felt him chuckle, knowing with her use of his first name that he'd won.

"I hate it when you do this to me," she confessed, turning to face him. She wanted to be able to touch him, to make him burn the way she did, but he restrained her hands and held her gaze.

"No, honey," he said as he closed to kiss her, "not when I do this to you. You hate that I _can_ do this to you, but it's one of the many things I love, that you trust yourself to me," he said before kissing her. She knew he was right, but no longer seemed to care. She melted into his kiss and made quick work of his belt and pants.

"Slow down, sweetheart," he murmured.

"Aren't you the one anxious to prove you can keep up?" she teased.

"Oh, I can keep up," he told her with steel in his voice. "This requires all that patience and discipline you keep talking about," he promised.

The way he kissed her was agonizingly slow and sweet. It made her want to cry sometimes; his gentleness and the depth of the attention he paid to her. Other men couldn't wait to rip her clothes off and bury themselves in her, but Charlie could drive her crazy without taking off one stitch of clothing. He recently elevated his game to being able to coax an orgasm from her without disrobing either of them, with just his touch and his kiss. With anyone else it would have been too personal, more intense than she could tolerate, but with Charlie it felt natural and so very Crews. He could drive her to distraction whether talking her to death in the car, or with his tongue in their bed.

Strangest of all, Charlie Crews could be amazingly quiet, almost silent in bed. But it was his growl, low and rumbling in his chest, one he made without knowing - that was her undoing. It alone evidenced how badly he wanted her and the amount of restraint he exercised in seeing her past the edge of orgasm before he would permit himself to indulge - in her.

As he climbed atop her and slid into her, even before they began to move in rhythm, he growled or purred. It rumbled through him and it was not something she was even sure he noticed - but it sent chills coursing through her, setting every nerve on fire for him – and him alone. No one could do this to her. No one but Charlie Crews and she loved it, loved him. He was right - he owned her; and that was the thing she both loved and hated.

Charlie teased and occasionally taunted and she knew he could be mean, but he never was to her. He was an attentive, controlled, skilled and intensely passionate lover, but he was so much more. Crews was actively restoring her faith and that was something Dani thought forever lost. Her trust in him was unshakeable.

Early in their partnership, everyone sought to compromise their link. Lately, when that proved impossible, they'd tried to use her to get to him – they always would. They both knew it. Secretly, Dani hoped the eight short years between them gave her enough of an edge to never disappoint him and to keep up with her rambunctious red haired partner who often acted first, thought later.

Without incredibly gifted instincts and reflexes, she feared Crews would have already have gotten himself killed, but it was a talent earned at a price; one extracted in blood from him inside Pelican Bay Federal Maximum Security Prison. She yearned to ask him about Roman and the guard he'd injured in the same way, but knew it was a dark place and Crews did not like the dark. He lived in and off of the sunlight, almost like he was solar powered.

In quiet moments, Dani lay awake tracing his many battle scars with the edge of her nail, learning each cut, each stitch line and staple mark with her hands and her tongue. Sometimes, when he was really relaxed, Charlie would grin in the dark as she hit a ticklish spot, but she'd learned Crews rarely, if ever, fully relaxed. He tolerated her exploration because he trusted her and Crews trusted even fewer people than she did.

She marveled at how alike they were and how completely different. Charlie was fond of the saying "same difference", which held a meaning to him entirely opposite than the rest of the world. To Crews it meant there was a sameness in their difference and in the months it had taken to penetrate Crews' shiny shell she realized the importance of his distinction. Whereas Dani seemed unapproachable because of the attitude she projected and Crews seemed very approachable, they were equally closed off, cloistered and distrusting. "Window dressing" Crews called it; underneath, inside, they were kindred souls, both betrayed by everyone they'd ever trusted – except each other.

She'd never met anyone who understood her so completely and satisfied her sexually to the degree her partner could. Perhaps it was the trust that was the missing ingredient in sex with strangers because Crews was only with his ex-wife before prison and he didn't pick up his bedroom behaviors in Crescent City. He shouldn't be able to do the things to her that he could.

It was clear that she had a similar effect on him. The couple of times she'd teased him at work had proved that, and it was the only time he got annoyed at her anymore. When she toyed with him and he couldn't touch her, it drove him crazy. No amount of dirty talk and heated glances could satisfy him and more than once it had resulted in a detour to slake his thirst. Those instances marked the few times their lovemaking was brief. She didn't know why he worried about their age difference when he could clearly go for hours, but it bothered him so she let him tell her why.

As they lay in bed later, she asked, "Does our age difference bother you, Charlie?"

He fidgeted and sighed. "Yes and no," he responded. A flippant reply stayed on her tongue and she waited knowing there was more.

"I guess I wonder if…. But then that's the future and there isn't any future, so it's a wonder that I shouldn't wonder and it's thinking about where we're going next, which I shouldn't do. I should just stay in the moment, because the moment is all we have and the moment is good, really good, great actually." He sputtered to a stop having answered his own question, which is what normally happened.

She was tempted to tell him he was doing it again – talking to himself, but settled for "I'm glad we could have this talk," as she smiled and kissed his chest.

"Why do you put up with me?" he smiled down at her.

"I ask myself that everyday, Crews. Every single day." She grinned at him.

"Couldn't be because you love me could it?" He surprised her sometimes with his shyness.

"Would I do it for any other reason?" she teased.

"My big screen TV. My massive house. My super fast sports car. I know you find it unbelievable, but most women are impressed by these things." He had admitted somewhat honestly that his wealth and the privilege it brought garnered him a lot of female attention before they became exclusive.

"None of those things interest me, Crews," she promised him. "Not all that money, not your massive…" she looked down at his groin, buried beneath the sheets for emphasis, "things." He laughed aloud and it was a rare thing to hear Charlie Crews laugh.

She pushed off him intent on taking a shower, one in which they would both end up and be chased from – only after running the house out of hot water. But he grabbed her and held her tight. "Tell me, honey. You know what I want."

"I do know what you want, Charlie," she whispered kissing him deeply and winding her hand under the sheet to find him hard for her again. She pulled back and looked from her deep coffee brown eyes to his greenish blue ones and gave him what he wanted. "I love you… you nut job. Always have. Probably always will."

He smiled and released her.

"Probably?" he groaned, throwing his head back on the pillow. "Why do you torture me like this?"

"If you knew all the answers, you might stop looking," she replied cryptically as she sauntered off to the shower without a stitch of clothes on, knowing he was watching the whole time, adding, "Oh and Charlie, the car? It's mine. You need to remember that."

He rolled onto his side and pulled open the bedside table drawer where he kept his Zen book, certain she was reading it when he wasn't looking. Dani Reese got more and more Zen the longer he knew her.

"Hey, stop reading that damned book and get in here, mister," she told him a tone brooking no argument.

Charlie dropped the book, slammed the drawer closed and vaulted off the bed like a shot. "That's the kind of response I'm looking for in my junior partner," she teased. "Why can't you do that at work?"

"I jump over things at work, occasionally. There was a car once, and that fence, which in retrospect was not such a good idea…" he countered.

"I meant listen to me, smart ass," she sassed him back.

"Honey," he captured her again as they stepped into the stream of hot water, "I am always listening." He began the gentle exploration of the curves of her body that she so enjoyed.

"Charlie?" she questioned. He paused and hummed against her neck inquiry.

"Don't Buddhists believe in old souls?" He nodded yes.

"Well, I have one of those, so we're even." She felt his smile against her shoulder blade as he kissed it.

"Nice try, sweetheart," he murmured onto the pulse point on her collarbone as he turned her to face him. "Old soul, huh? Then why do I have to explain Zen to you?"

"Who says I don't just let you do that for your own benefit?" she smirked, kissed him and grabbed the shampoo bottle.

The idea made Charlie twist his brain and wonder. Was she just being coy and cocky? Because he considered there were times when he could swear that Dani Reese was the most unconsciously Zen being he knew. It was a good train of thought, but just then he returned to himself as she turned his palm up and squeezed shampoo into it, while he stood there mute. The smile on her face was peaceful, like still water on a crisp fall day.

In his head, he heard the refrain from a song Dani was singing in the car a day prior. He adored the fact she trusted him enough to sing quietly without being self-conscious about it. It spoke to her level of comfort with him, even if he didn't think she realized she was doing it. Charlie knew that singing or humming subconsciously meant happiness and that meant Dani was in a good place, with him.

As he reveled in the feel of her skin and the wonderful things her hands were doing to him, Charlie leaned down and got lost in the feeling of kissing her. The lyrics echoed in his brain melodically coaching him "close your eyes, clear your heart… cut the cord" and Charlie found all thoughts of Zen, grade school and their relative age difference fled his mind like morning fog flees the rising sun.

_Author's Note: The lyrics are from the song "Human" by The Killers and no copyright infringement is intended. Those words speak to me too._


	2. Chapter 2 Dinner with the Devil

**Dinner with the Devil**

It showed up at the "house", which is what Charlie called his estate - his mansion with sprawling grounds and an enviable view of the city - in a plain white envelope, looking innocuous. A dinner invitation from Mickey Rayborn in the oily man's own hand, scrawling out "and bring Jack Reese's lovely daughter too. I'm sure she'll find the evening entertaining."

It was an invitation to vacation in hell from the devil himself.

But, as Charlie pointed out, with the paucity of leads in their current inquiry it was one they could not afford to turn down and that was precisely what troubled Dani Reese. She stood flicking the envelope back and forth across her knuckles, making an annoying smacking sound and biting her bottom lip tentatively.

"Come on Reese, we gotta go. You know it. I know it. Hell, even Rayborn knows it. We gotta go. We'll just be extra careful," Charlie almost pleaded, clearly interested in what the man had to say, to share. But Dani Reese's distrust of Mickey Rayborn went back far further than Charlie could envision.

She flashed back to the halcyon days of the LAPD SWAT Team. They were heroes, then, in the wake of the Bank of LA robbery, larger than life - even to other cops.

Back in those days, Sunday afternoon barbeques at the Reese home always began benignly enough. Kids playing in the sprinkler, grilling hot dogs and loads of other cops around; but as the day wore into night most families went home leaving only the hardcore drunks. Men who'd already had far too much beer, laughing too hard, sweating and swaggering men who liked to have little girls sit on their lap or fetch them more drinks. She shuddered, remembering those hot summer nights. She remembered never liking the lecherous way Mickey Rayborn looked at her and Charlie Crews was not going to like it either.

This was beyond dangerous, it was insane, which naturally meant Charlie jumped right in with both feet. She heard him talking on the phone talking to Rayborn in guarded tones, promising they'd be there, while she chewed a hole in her bottom lip. This was not going to be pleasant, she just knew it.

After he ended the call, by snapping his cell shut with flourish, Charlie tried to allay her fears, "I know you don't like it. You don't trust him. I don't either. But we are dead in the water. We need something. Rayborn likes to talk. Maybe we'll learn something," he offered, knowing she was unhappy with his decision.

"We'll only learn what he wants us to and that will be nothing but lies and half-truths designed to lead us away from the truth," she told him glumly.

"Okay…I can go alone," he offered when it was clear the idea repulsed her.

"You think I'd let you go in there with no backup?" She wondered at his stupidity sometimes.

"I can take of myself." He jutted his chin out emphasizing something, Dani just wasn't sure what. Rayborn was dangerous to her, to him, to them; there was no way she was letting him go alone.

"Oh, there's not a chance in hell I'm letting you go in there alone," she pronounced determinedly.

"That's my girl," he winked at her and smiled.

Dani simply scowled at him. "And you'd better not let on that we are…that you and I are…" she stammered, seemingly unable to define their relationship aloud.

"We are what? In love?" he teased softly, "Honey, if you think I can hide that then I should give up police work and go into show business," he smiled at her. "That's a lost cause. There isn't a man or woman on the face of this planet I could convince that you weren't more important to me than air."

She stared at him, speechless.

"What?" he asked laughing at her expression.

"You do that on purpose," she growled and shot him a dark look.

"Yes, honey I do," he steered her by the elbow toward the door and their waiting car. "Any chance you'll let me drive since you're not yourself this morning?"

She shot him another sideways glance meant to intimidate and threaten.

"Have I told you how hot you are when you try to look mad at me?" he was in rare form and truly enjoying the morning. "Reese?"

"Just shut up and get in the car, Charlie," she replied. She was losing control of this situation. What was she thinking? Then Dani realized she never had control. Control was an illusion and no one, nothing controlled Crews – he was a force of nature, like gravity or water. He was wondrous and she loved him; for that she could eat dinner with anyone.

* * *

"Ready?" he questioned as Dani's heels clicked down the stairs behind him. He turned to face her and gaped. Dani was a pretty woman, but when she took the time to dress up, she was nothing short of stunning. She was dressed simply and in black, and Charlie wryly thought she'd chosen the color on purpose. The dress she'd chosen accentuated her small waist and the hemline was well short of her knees.

"You look like you've swallowed your cufflink. Now stop staring," she directed, all business. This was a mission, a felony arrest, a drug raid to her. "You're carrying right?" she checked him with her hands for a pistol.

She found his Beretta 92F in a shoulder holster under his left arm. "A shoulder rig?" she questioned.

"A paddle back ruins the lay of these pants," he teased with a tiny lisp like he was gay. Dani smirked, dangerously close to smile for the first time all day.

"Hey," he said softly, "can we do this - you frisk me thing - again later?" he teased, waggling his eyebrows at her. His eyes twinkled with mischief and he watched as Dani almost smiled again, she then carefully schooled her features.

He sought her eyes with his knuckle under her chin, "I won't let him hurt you, you know?" Her eyes were dark and serious for a moment, then Reese dropped those famous walls and she was again a mystery to him.

"I'm not worried about me. I'm worried about you," Dani told him.

Her expression was unreadable and eyes distant. Charlie rocked slightly on the balls of his feet with his hands jammed in his pockets; he waited while she gathered herself to continue. "Rayborn used to come to the house when I was a kid, drank too much, creeped me out. He still creeps me out Crews."

Charlie's eyes widened and then narrowed at her implication. "He didn't? Did he? Reese, did he touch you?" his voice was deep and thick with emotion. He stepped close to her and lightly ran his fingers down her bare arms. "I'll always keep you safe, honey, but…if he hurt you….now or before…that's something I can't forgive."

"See that's what I'm afraid of, Charlie," she looked up at him, her gaze serious. "I know you'll do something dumb. We'll get there; you'll feel my reaction and things will go downhill. That's why I'm telling you now, because you'll know the instant we get there. You know me that well," she confessed.

"Did he touch you, Dani?" Charlie inquired with more force, seeking answers in her dark eyes.

"No, he… just said things, looks, glances, leers, drunken kisses goodbye that lasted too long. I knew, Crews, okay? I just knew and he gives me the creeps," she confessed again biting her bottom lip in annoyance and frustration.

Charlie let out a loud audible breath and when he did so, Dani did too. The synchronicity of their behavior brought a slight smile to both their faces. He gathered her into his arms, hugging her into his chest, where she fit so perfectly. "Any looks, leers or kisses will be met with my fist tonight," he promised.

"How are we going to learn anything if you punch his lights out before we even sit down to dinner?" she questioned.

"Doesn't matter. That man so much as looks at you funny and we are outta there," Charlie promised, kissing the top of her head lightly. "You have my word."

As luck would have it all that preparing and emotional unburdening was totally unnecessary because Rayborn delivered an even greater surprise that evening.

They were guided through the house, by Finn, a burly bodyguard with whom it appeared Charlie had history, to where Rayborn was seated in his elegantly appointed study. The reddish blond 60 year old was dressed in expensive loafers, a cream colored buttoned down shirt and navy slacks. He sat lounging in a rich chestnut leather club chair, his feet on the ottoman, swirling an amber single malt scotch around a highball glass, smoking a cigar and chatting amiably with none other than Jack Reese.


	3. Chapter 3 Family Reunion

**Family Reunion**

Nothing happened at first. Then everything happened all at once.

Jack Reese looked up from his own glass of scotch, his eyes connecting with his daughter's, the smile plastered on his face fading like melting plastic. It was clear he did not know Rayborn had invited her.

Then Jack broadened his view and took in Crews; Crews with his daughter and Jack's face reformed taking on a fierce scowl.

Dani was shocked and for a moment literally lost her footing causing Charlie to place his hands around her waist to steady her. This gesture of support and intimacy elicited a grumbled but audibly low and threatening "get your hands off my daughter," from Jack Reese, issued through clenched teeth.

Charlie, who had been on alert since they stepped from the car, then stepped in front of Reese in a protective stance, feeling under his jacket for the solidity of the 9mm pistol there. This only served to further anger Jack Reese who rounded the couch prepared to visit pain on the person of Charlie Crew, when Mickey Rayborn's thin reedy laugh stopped all action in the room.

He sniggered, covering his mouth. "The looks on your faces….it's priceless."

All eyes were drawn to this man as his laughter became a cackle and everyone froze, watching the ringmaster holding court with each of them as chess pieces in his own private life sized game.

"See, I told you this was a bad idea," Dani whispered, causing Charlie to glance back at his diminutive partner. It was the one and only time, even when she'd been right (and it happened a lot that she was), in which Dani Reese had ever said "I told you so" out loud.

Her features were schooled, but Charlie could see the tenseness in her body and the apprehension hidden deep in her eyes.

"Just breathe," he told her, transporting them both back to that day in the orange grove when it did not seem either of them would live out the day. The unspoken message was that they got through that together; they'd get through this together.

Charlie extracted his hand from under his jacket, slowly and deliberately, deescalating the tense atmosphere, showing he was no threat. However, when his hand reached his side, Dani surprised him, by stepping forward and placing her smaller hand in his. Charlie looked down at their conjoined hands; hers, smaller tanned and warm wrapped tightly around his, as did Jack Reese. Charlie smiled softly; Jack Reese did not.

This amused Rayborn to no end. His laughing intensified to the point he almost doubled over and tears wet the corners of his eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he choked out, "I'm sure this is all very serious to you three."

Charlie and Jack both shot him a dark look. Dani's eyes never left her father; she bit her lip nervously and then offered to him, only to him, "Roman Nevikov said you were dead. He said he killed you." The last part of her sentence was almost lost she voiced it so quietly.

In those moments, Charlie recalled a lesson he'd learned long ago on patrol working with abused or neglected children. No matter what a parent does to a child, at some level that child still loves them. Dani was surprised to see her father alive and for the moment that was all that mattered to her, she only saw Jack Reese, alive, whole and unharmed.

Anger, which was a component of Dani's psyche, would come later, for now she knew only joy he was alive and wonder at the surprises life could bring. But her simple gesture of placing her hand in his told him that she needed his support, wanted him there with her.

Charlie swallowed his dislike and distrust of the man and backed his partner, so much so that his next words surprised even him. "Dani and Roya have been worried about you Jack," Charlie said neutrally.

Jack Reese's anger was blunted by Dani's concern and Charlie's refusal to engage. He huffed and his eyes blazed, but when Dani stepped forward toward him, the fire in his eyes went out. Charlie had a choice – let himself be drawn along or release her.

Mickey Rayborn watched the exchange with great interest. Just as Dani reached the point they'd have to separate, Charlie took a step forward. Connected was one word for their link; inseparable was probably a better one.

She glanced back briefly; her eyes said "thank you." Charlie hadn't known he would do it, until it actually happened. Jack closed the distance and hugged his daughter who returned the gesture with her one free arm. "I'm glad you're not dead, Dad."

"Well, that's something," he said quietly as he kissed Dani on the cheek, released her and stepped back. He watched to see what his daughter would do and after a tiny bit of pressure on their link, Dani returned to her mate.

Charlie stood uneasily for a fraction of a second, before stepping closer to his partner, and placing his other hand lightly on her waist, as if to intimate ownership, protectiveness. He hated that he did it, but it wasn't a conscious choice, it was something his heart did for him. His eyes still glittered angrily at Jack Reese.

"So… this is how it is now?" Jack questioned his daughter, inclining his head toward Crews.

"I love him," Dani said flatly. In that moment, Charlie was so proud of her. Not simply because she was his, but because she'd said it aloud, by choice and without a moment's hesitation. He remembered thinking of the ways he'd thank her later.

"So much for not letting on," Charlie said lightly in a happy but subdued tone; low under his breath, for her ears only. She elbowed him gently in response and sighed when he flinched. It was just a touch really.

"Oh, ho…that has to hurt, Jack," Rayborn joked affably, "your daughter shacked up with the guy you framed for murder."

Charlie, Dani and Jack responded in tandem, "Shut up Rayborn," and then eyed each other suspiciously.

"Come, let's all sit and I'll tell you all how this will play out," Rayborn said, excitedly rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "This will be fun."

"Nothing I've ever done with you was fun, Mickey," Jack Reese groused.

"Oh, come on, what about those barbeques? The ones at your house? When Dani was a little girl? She was so cute in her little swimsuit; shy little girl back then, all dark eyes and long limbs…" he trailed off as his mind no doubt sunk into the gutter.

Jack looked like he might be ill and suddenly Charlie looked like he might kill someone, Mickey Rayborn in particular, with his bare hands. He saw Dani Reese to a place on the couch, where she perched precariously on the edge of her seat. Charlie put her hand in her lap and winked at her, eliciting a very slight smile, one that did not reach her eyes, in response.

He stepped away from her and toward Rayborn, leaned down and said something to the man.

"Keep talking about my partner like that and you and I are going to step out on that balcony for some air and one of us isn't coming back in," Charlie threatened.

Dani smiled as Rayborn paled. She couldn't hear what Charlie said, but its effect on the cocky Irishman was immediate and profound.

"Thought you weren't a killer, Detective," Rayborn taunted, loud enough for everyone to hear.

"For you? I'll make an exception." Charlie smiled to indicate he was not only willing to step across that line, but that he'd enjoy it. He took a seat on the couch next to Dani and reached across her lap to again take her hand in his.

"And they say chivalry is dead," Rayborn joked, but hate and envy were in his eyes.

"Well, I guess you are all wondering why I've asked you here tonight. I thought about our situation and decided it was time I came clean – so to speak. We've reached a point where the baton must be passed. From the old guardians," he gestured to Jack, "to the new, you two."

"I told you, Rayborn, I'm not interested," Charlie gritted out through his own clenched teeth. Dani could feel him gathering for a physical response. His thigh muscle tightened where it touched hers, as they sat side by side. His grip on her hand tightened slightly and then he forced himself to relax his grip. He shifted in his seat and she could feel him preparing to rise.

"Charlie…wait," she asked. "I wanna hear his offer," Dani told him.

He looked at her for a moment, as something akin to fear showed in his eyes. She held his gaze solidly and he nodded and settled back into the couch, still guarded, but content to stay by her side, for now.

"Hmm….I should have expected this. Jack Reese's daughter has nerves of steel, doesn't she boys? She's probably got more guts than anyone in this room. I should have just waited a few years for her to grow up and poor old Charlie Crews over there would have never been involved in this, eh?"

Rayborn smiled a greasy grin at Dani, making her shudder. Crews felt the chill pass through her, but she remained rock solid.

Charlie knew something Rayborn did not - Dani Reese was little, but mighty. She was built out of granite and marble. More than one mean-hearted man had bashed himself against the walls she'd built and not gotten in. He could relax. She was in control here. Rayborn just didn't understand how outmatched he was. Charlie risked a glance across the way at Jack and found an equal amount of amusement in his eyes.

Rayborn rose as he continued, "Anyone else care for a drink?" Jack took up his forgotten scotch glass and Charlie stiffly took an offered beer from Rayborn's hand. He made up his mind to try and play nice until Dani got what she wanted and they could leave; her reluctance to come proving more and more warranted as the night wore on.

"Detective Reese? Oh…that's right… you don't drink anymore, do you?" his mean spirited remark hung in the air.

"I'm an alcoholic and I think everyone here knows that," Dani said coolly.

"Hasn't stopped your old man," Rayborn laughed, hoisting his glass in a mock toast at Jack who had the good sense to look chagrinned. The room fell silent as Rayborn fixed himself another drink.

The sound of the ice clinking in his glass and scotch pouring from the decanter the only sound for a few moments. In that time Dani and Charlie exchange a look that spoke volumes, it was both inquisitive and responsive and filled them both with resolve and confidence to continue. Their link was not missed on her father.

"Here's how I see it. Roman was never right for our group. He was a Philistine, barbaric and, well, now that you've removed him from consideration to take over the business, you two are the heirs apparent. Yes, yes, I know you have several million dollars Crews, but you need to think bigger. Maybe your partner can help you." Rayborn started his sales pitch.

Charlie's eyebrows shot downward into a frown, but Dani squeezed his hand slightly and he eased up. "What is it you think we can do for you, Rayborn?" Charlie asked, careful to keep his tone even and non-committal.

"See, listen to the lady. You're getting smarter already, kiddo," Rayborn continued, sipping his scotch.

"Our group has lots of holdings, interests and investments, which from time to time can become….shall we say 'of interest' to the police. When this happens, we require advance notice and occasionally some help, but would not be the only friends we have," he warned.

"If you chose to assist us, we can make things easy for you. I'm not just talking about money, promotions or positions. Think of them as perks of association. You'd also be protected, by our people, and our reach is further than you think." Rayborn spoke from a position of power and control. He oozed confidence.

Charlie had heard just about all he was willing to and rose to leave, when Dani pointedly continued the conversation. "What would we have to do exactly?" she said. Charlie turned in his seat and looked at her like he'd never met her.

"Can I talk to you outside?" he growled under his breath, but the room was so quiet everyone heard, if not his words, then at least his tone, which was very displeased.

"Excuse us a moment," Dani said courteously and let herself be led onto the balcony of the vast penthouse apartment.

"Not going to throw her off the roof, I'd imagine Detective," Rayborn jeered over his shoulder.

Charlie's reply was a simple look that spoke of harshness and cruelty if Rayborn continued.

"What are you doing?" he said in clipped tones once outside earshot of their host.

She pulled him up short by their joined hands and looked deep into his eyes. "Do you trust me?" He nodded in the affirmative, she kissed him quickly and said, "Then trust me," and nothing more.

She dropped his hand and moved beyond him to the warm, brightly lit living area. Charlie had to scramble to keep up with her. They were back inside in under a minute.

"Ah, all straightened out there, Detectives?" Rayborn spoke, so certain he held all the cards. Dani nodded curtly and retook her seat on the couch.

Charlie snagged his beer from the sofa table and stayed standing nearby. He rotated his neck and flexed and released his long fingers to stave off the building tension. He concentrated on one finger at a time, releasing the neck of the bottle and then alternate fingers, while he watched his partner.

"What exactly would you want us to do?" Dani asked Rayborn. Charlie took a long pull off his beer bottle, his mouth suddenly dry.

"We'll talk about it over dinner because I believe…. Yes, Finn says dinner is served." Rayborn declined to explain further. Charlie watched Dani bite her lip in frustration and realized she wanted more from Rayborn.

Dani excused herself to freshen up prior to dinner. Jack Reese barely waited until his daughter left the room to inquire of her paramour, "How exactly would this qualify as keeping my daughter out of this?"

"I don't work for you Jack. Neither does Dani." Charlie replied sharply. "We aren't part of your group and neither of us are anxious to be. It might surprise you to know your daughter, because I don't think you do. You are far too busy judging her to recognize what a great cop she is – and a good person. She's a _good_ person, Jack. Far better than you and your friends."

"I know that, Crews," Jack replied, his annoyance apparent in his tone. "And I do know my daughter, I've known her all her life," he defended himself. "If you really cared about her you would have kept her out of this. That is exactly why I relied on you not to involve her in this," he continued tersely through clenched teeth.

"Well she is involved in this," Dani said as she neatly cut between them, returning from the powder room unnoticed. "You two better keep up." Both men found themselves admiring her spunk and marveling at her near silent approach.

"She's outta your league, Crews," Jack whispered. Charlie had to agree.

* * *

Charlie guessed the food was good, but he barely tasted it because of his nervousness. He couldn't name what was served if his life depended on it. He remembered there was wine with dinner, only because Rayborn got progressively more drunk and suggestive. The looks that he leveled at Dani made Charlie's skin crawl, but she was an oak.

He looked to her for permission, because she'd made it clear there was something she was after. Twice, then thrice she shook her head – waving him off. Charlie breathed deeply as they made it to dessert with aperitifs (again with only Jack Reese and Rayborn partaking). Dani studiously ignored the presence of alcohol in any form, she never even glanced at it.

The longer Charlie watched her, the more he realized she had her "game face" on. She was approaching this whole event like she would an interrogation and Reese never gave anything away in the box. She never shared a thing, not a single personal detail; nothing the perp could use to connect with her. She told him she didn't want to bond with the trash they dealt with.

Charlie realized she kept the whole world at an arm's length – except him – the whole world except him and that made him happy, but this time he kept it to himself. He made himself relax and noticed that she noticed. His eyes smiled at her and hers smiled back, but the rest of her look gave nothing away.

Blessedly the night drew to a close, as Dani once again left their company to visit the ladies room, with a telling comment from Rayborn.

"Just consider it Detectives," Rayborn kept on the hard sell as she rejoined them, "you could both be so helpful to us. And in your case Detective Reese it would be continuing a family tradition." Both Reeses scowled.

"Oh, it's not so bad. Just helping out your brothers in blue, like your Captain," he placated them.

Charlie caught the millisecond of surprise from Dani before she became as emotionless as a stone again. _So Tidwell was on the take, interesting_… he thought. But before his mind could lead him down the fissures, cracks and blind alleys of what that meant, he felt Dani Reese's warm hand in his and heard her whisper, "let's go, Charlie."

"Well thank you for a delightful evening. Now give us a good bye kiss, Detective." Rayborn, now more than a little drunk, pointedly opened his arms and beckoned Reese. She just glared at him. "Come on, Dani. We're practically family. I miss your goodbye kisses."

Jack Reese rose off the couch determined to intervene, but he was about two seconds and four steps too late. Charlie had about all the leers and innuendo directed at Reese he was willing to tolerate for one night.

Even if she was standing up to it like a champ, he was not. His right arm cocked back and uncoiled like a released spring. He connected with Rayborn's face with enough force to take the man off his feet and sending him flying.

The commotion brought Finn running from the other room, gun drawn and Charlie's lightning quick reflexes resulted in his 9mm appearing in his hand as if summoned from thin air. It had grave potential, until Rayborn's thin reedy laugh from the floor, where he lay sprawled, again stopped everyone cold.

"Jealousy is not a good color on you, kiddo," Rayborn laughed sitting up. He worked his jaw with his right hand concluding it would be sore tomorrow. "Still, you do throw a nice square punch. Learn that in prison? Guess I should be relieved I didn't end up like Roman."

Charlie's look was decidedly dark, but he said nothing in response. Finn menaced and Charlie's lips curled into a sneer, his face plainly bore the rage he felt at Rayborn's insinuation and the seriousness of the insult to his partner.

In those moments, unbeknownst to him, Crews' stock rose in Jack Reese's eyes. The man stood up for his daughter and more importantly stood up to Mickey Rayborn. Jack had never seen anyone do that – and live.

"Finn, show our guests out," Rayborn said from his position on the floor, still laughing.

The tension in the air was palpable as Dani tugged at Crews elbow. "Come on Charlie, let's go." Crews let himself be led away by his younger, smaller partner, but in those moments Rayborn caught a glimpse into the inner workings of their pairing.

Crews was clearly the brawn, but she was the brains. Dani Reese definitely had better control of her impulses than her brash partner; better than rumored, because his flagrant attempts to provoke an emotional response from the young woman all night had netted him nothing. Not a flicker of emotion; she was one cool customer. In the back of his mind, the thought was forming that Jack Reese's daughter would prove to be Charlie Crews' Achilles heel.

"Jack, make yourself useful and help me up," Rayborn said extending his hand, still laughing.

"Go fuck yourself, Mickey," Jack Reese told him, turned his back and walked back into the study, ostensibly to get yet another scotch.

Dani Reese allowed herself a small tight smile, as they got on the elevator. Her father had not changed so much and he was alive. She would be able to make her mother happy. Her hand firmly in Charlie Crews' her smile got bigger, the further away from Mickey Rayborn they got.


	4. Chapter 4 Dark Ride

**Dark Ride**

"Have you lost your mind?" she growled at him under her breath on the long elevator ride to the car.

"That guy was not putting his hands on you," Charlie said forcefully, still clearly wound up and angry.

"I had it under control," she said, annoyed at him for feeling the need to defend her. "I can take care of myself," she cautioned testily.

Charlie turned and faced her, noting the tight set of her jaw and slightly pissed off expression. He knew Dani Reese was fiercely independent and she would rebel against the slightest attempt to control her – by him or anyone else. He knew he'd have to balance his strong desire to protect her and his burning possessiveness (which surprised even him) with her own strong will, if this was going to work.

"I'd like to think I was just backing you up," he offered, his tone more level. He reached up and stroked her hair. "Hey, look at me," he pleaded quietly, "are we okay?"

She sighed, "Of course, we are okay…it's just Rayborn creeps me out, I told you," she countered, still annoyed. He just looked at her, willed her to see him, not just his face but his soul. "Charlie…" she warned, "don't do this here." She wasn't refusing him, just setting conditions, he realized.

He raised his head and said softly, "Okay, you win," and drew her into his embrace.

She bristled initially, but let herself be pulled into the safety and warmth of his arms and he felt her relax. He was gratified she trusted him in that way. It was clear some days the entire rest of the world was locked in combat with his young partner or she with it.

"I always win, you moron," she grumbled into his chest.

"Yes, honey, you do," he admitted, kissing her hair and inhaling the scent of her shampoo. "If you were matched against Lucifer himself, I'd bet everything I own on you," he chuckled, rocking her lightly back and forth in his arms as the elevator descended silently.

"You'd better. I ever find out you bet against me, I'll kill you in your sleep," she grinned against his chest and wrapped her arms tighter, under his jacket.

"That's my girl," he said with a slightly satisfied air, just as the elevator doors opened and the attendant waited with their car.

"Sir, your keys are in the ignition," the attendant said, with a snappy, but forced smile.

"Not my car, kid. It's the lady's." Charlie corrected pointedly.

Dani's smile was positively devilish. Charlie swallowed hard and wondered if they both went to hell, whether Dani Reese might end up running things there.

Then she said two words to him that made his heart race, "You drive."

* * *

The car was dark and quiet as they sped through the city streets, no Zen tape, no rock music; it was a bit eerie, but Dani was too busy to play with the radio and Charlie too preoccupied watching what she was doing.

"Watch the road, will ya?" she groused at his obvious preoccupation with her ministrations and not his driving, "don't you see enough of my legs at home?"

"Is that Zen?" he joked wryly, prompting her to shoot him an annoyed glance.

"You know damned good and well, I know fuck all about Zen. I'm really beginning to regret letting you drive," she said tersely, but he knew she wasn't really angry with him. He reached out his free hand, placing it solidly on her exposed knee.

"Charlie? What are you doing?" she looked up at him.

"Sorry, I just need to connect with you," he grinned.

"With my knee? Really? You expect me to buy that?" she countered.

"No. Not really," he replied, but his hand stayed on her leg, long fingers wrapping behind to the sensitive area just behind her knees, touching her lightly. Dani froze. It was one of her spots, those areas that when he touched rendered her incapable of moving or speaking. He found it both fascinating and exciting.

As they rolled to a stop at a red light, Charlie unbuckled his seat belt, leaned across closing the distance between them and locked her in a searing kiss in one swift movement. "I love you," he said as he returned to the seat; the light turned green and he sped off again.

"How do you do that?" she said quietly, after a moment.

"Do you really wanna know?" he smiled brightly at her.

"No. No, I don't," she said looking straight ahead, before returning to her work.

He checked his mirrors, increased his speed and changed lanes, still exhilarated by her kiss. When he looked back down there was a small digital recorder in Dani's hands. "Where'd that come from?"

"China - I think," she smarted back and as he continued to stare. "You don't wanna know."

"Were you wearing that the whole time?" he asked, pretty sure her answer would be yes. She nodded and smiled broadly.

"Why else would have asked all those stupid questions?" she told him as she began to replay portions of the recording to check the sound quality.

"I have a computer at home we can download that to with better speakers," he offered.

"Yes, Crews I remember," she replied, smiling slyly at him.

"But when we get home…" he began.

Dani shot him a look that said there wasn't anything more important than going over their newly obtained evidence, but Charlie continued undeterred, "I'm going to have to frisk you…just to make sure you don't have anything else under there I don't know about."

His joke got the better of her and Dani had to turn her head towards the window to hide her laughter. "Yeah, you do that Charlie," she spoke to her own reflection in the glass. "You do that."

* * *

The mansion was dark when they approached and the only light in the area was the bright halogen head lights of Crews' sleek black Maserati. "Stay here," he cautioned her.

"Like hell," she responded. Charlie rolled his eyes, but no one could see it in the pitch black.

"Maybe it's just a breaker," he offered.

"Do you even know what a breaker is or how to fix one?" she countered. He shrugged but made no comment on her estimation of his electrical prowess. "Or maybe whoever shot you that day came back to finish the job?" she said tersely.

"Nope, I know who that was, it's not him," he replied without thinking.

Her head snapped back in his direction and although it was too dark to see her eyes, Charlie knew that was going to require some explaining. He'd told her everything... mostly, but not every single thing. There was a lot to remember and some things invariably got left out. Bodner shooting him was one of those things.

"Do you have a flashlight?" she asked quietly.

"Nope," he whispered back.

"Great," she said. "Just great."

They approached the house together and paused by the front door listening, Charlie was crouched with his pistol drawn, in a high cover position; Dani was mirroring his stance, minus the gun, on the opposite side of the front door, when both were startled by a loud "hey" from behind them.

Charlie instantly whirled and trained his pistol on the speaker, who rapidly began backpedaling. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," came the recognizable voice of Ted Early who was standing in the drive in a navy blue t-shirt and pajama pants, with a bowl of cereal clutched precariously in his right hand, both hands now halfway in the air.

"Ted," the exasperation apparent in Charlie's voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here. Remember?" Ted's blinding flash of the obvious making them all feel stupid. Charlie holstered his pistol and walk up the drive towards him.

"When did you get back?" Charlie said smiling.

"Uh, tonight. Is that Detective Reese?" Ted inquired. "Hello, Detective."

Dani waved. Ted whispered, "What's she doing here?"

'Ted, what happened to the lights?" Charlie still focused on the pitch-black house.

"Oh, right, right," he stammered. "Well, I came home and you…you weren't here. The house was lit up like a Christmas tree. Do you have any idea what our electric bill is Charlie?" Charlie sighed, Dani rolled her eyes and headed into the house alone.

"How's Olivia?" Charlie asked genuinely interested.

"Huh? What? Oh….Olivia, yes Olivia. She's… great. She's great, Charlie. Not marrying your father, but um… really great," trailing off as he watched lights go on in the house.

Charlie glanced behind him, noting the lights and placated his friend. "Ted, don't worry about the electric bill."

But Charlie's friend continued to be distracted by the presence of Dani Reese, whose progress he could track through the house as the lights came on in sequence while she made her way to Charlie's bedroom.

"What's Dani Reese doing in your bedroom Charlie?" he questioned, shock registering in his voice.

Charlie jammed his hands down in his pockets and walked closer. "She lives here now too, Ted," he confessed and then expelled a deep breath. "I know what you're thinking, but it's really not a problem."

"Not a problem!" Ted interrupted. "Her father put me back in prison, Charlie. Prison. Remember? Me in prison..," he said, rather animatedly waving his cereal bowl in the air.

"Yes, Ted, but I'm not going to let that happen again," Charlie tried to calm his flighty and flustered friend. "Stop waving that bowl around. You're gonna spill your Cheerios," Charlie scolded.

There was a long quiet moment before Ted continued in a more subdued tone, but on the same subject. "So you and Detective Reese are…." Ted started.

"Yes, we are," Charlie interjected, smiling, "yes, we are. Good night, Ted. You can tell me about Spain in the morning."

"Uh… yeah. I'll tell you about Spain in the morning - if we aren't back in prison in the morning," Ted stated getting increasingly louder, still clearly concerned about his future incarceration if Jack Reese found out Charlie was sleeping with the man's daughter.

Charlie waved dismissively over his shoulder and disappeared into the house. Ted watched as Charlie took the grand staircase two steps at a time in his haste to catch up with Dani Reese.

Charlie never wanted window treatments in the house. He said he liked the light and didn't want to feel cut off from the world. As a result, Ted could see as Charlie caught up with Detective Reese and she turned to greet him.

Then Charlie turned off the lights, plunging Ted back into the dark, where he quickly realized he was standing in the dark in his pajamas with probably a hundred hungry coyotes lurking in the hills around him and scampered back into the safety of his apartment.


	5. Chapter 5 Self Study

**To study the way is to study the self.**

**To study the self is to forget the self.**

**To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things. **

**To be enlightened by all things is to remove the barriers **

** between one's self and others. **

** --- Dogen**

Charlie was lying in bed listening. He heard the deep, measured breathing of his partner, who at the moment was sprawled across his chest, her hair in dark contrast to his pale skin. He listened harder and noted the sound of his own breath as it entered and left his lungs, felt the gurgle of his own blood pumping through his body. He listened more intently and found the noise of the condenser cycling in the A/C unit cooling his large house, but beneath that were sounds of the outdoors. Chirps of birds, barking dogs, kids playing and laughing, the snipping sound of a sprinkler keeping the lawn green and the sound of cars on the freeway far below his home in the hills. He went deeper until he found the sound of nothingness and stillness.

Quiet was easy to find in solitary. There were some days that he missed it, the quietness. The sound and fury of the world sometimes unnerved him, unsettled his usually placid soul. In those moments, he reached deep inside himself for that inner peace he'd built while alone all those years inside high thick walls, with nothing but his own voice for company.

He stroked Dani's hair as she stirred slightly, running his long, pale fingers through his partner's silken tresses from her scalp to the ends, where her smooth back was exposed. Partners - it was the perfect word to describe their relationship. Never before had anyone _understood_ him so completely the way Dani Reese did; though in their initial year together, she'd admitted she'd come dangerously close to killing him.

They were now capable of having whole conversations with just looks, glances and tiny facial expressions. She read the tenseness of his body when he feared danger, the eagerness or confusion in his eyes and he could tell her stress level from the set of her jaw, her anxiety level from the jiggling of her leg. Now they were tuned into each other on a level that defied definition. It would have been insulting to call her a girlfriend; she was so much more than that. But Dani always distracted him. In his attempts at meditation she would creep into his brain like sunlight slices through a cloud.

So he redoubled his efforts and returned to his examination of nothingness, closing his eyes and willing blackness and the absence of thought. This was harder than people thought, he realized ruefully. There were so very many distractions in the world. Good distractions like the warm woman beside him and bad distractions like that weasel Rayborn. He tried not to think about the night before, but soon he would be forced to.

He eased himself to a sitting position and gingerly lifted Dani's arm from where it was flung haphazardly across his torso.

"Where ya going?" she sleepily inquired.

"Some place quiet to mediate," he said softly, sliding from under her.

"I don't snore," she told him flatly and snuggled into the warm spot left in the bed when he left.

He sighed and looked down at her. "No, but you are distracting for a whole other reason, sweetheart. I have to go somewhere I can't hear you breathe, feel your skin or smell you - to concentrate." She mumbled something unintelligible and sank back into a deep sleep, making him smile.

She was an enigma to him. She could be so quiet and peaceful and yet, at other times she was a vicious little demon on speed. He kissed her shoulder blade and slipped silently from the room on cat's feet.

The sun was well up, but it was not yet hot as Charlie took up a position on his stone deck facing the distant Pacific Ocean, a view currently still clad in pale mixture of smog, fog and haze. It didn't matter for what he was doing though. For zazen one looks inside. It also didn't matter that the stone was cold, or hard or that the position was not comfortable. What mattered was being able to tune all that out and listen to the sound of nothingness and hear the voice within.

One by one, he acknowledged and ignored the noises around him until all he could hear was the quiet hum of the earth spinning. In these moments of silent lucidity, he could feel the movement of the planet to the degree he actually found himself dizzy.

He had neglected meditation for many weeks now and it was showing. His fuse was shorter, his patience evaporated more quickly and Charlie found anger and violence were ready and easy tools. He flexed and released the fist he'd punched Rayborn with last night and set it gently on his knee, palm up as if holding a fragile egg.

Charlie knew this level of distraction was dangerous for him and for the woman he loved, who was dead to the world in his bed upstairs – as she again intruded on his thoughts. Of all the things Charlie had to put out of his head to achieve the state of "no mind", Dani Reese continued to be the hardest. She was in every corner of his brain and filled his heart. He could not imagine himself ever having loved anyone else. So for her, for them, he began again.

* * *

Dani knew from the high position of the sun it was late, she looked down at her watch on the bedside table, sighed at how much of the day she's slept away and rose to take a shower. She went downstairs into the kitchen dressed in a fluffy white Turkish bathrobe, her hair still wet from the shower. She turned on Crews' coffee maker and opened the refrigerator, inspecting their brunch options, before the doorbell rang.

It was a Saturday and they were not expecting visitors. Dani looked through the glass of the French doors to the stone patio where Charlie sat in quiet concentration and she decided to answer his door herself, rather than interrupt his hard won concentration_. How much trouble could she get into answering his door,_ she reasoned.

She smartly put her eye to the peephole she'd insisted Crews get after he was shot, reminding her of his comment about Bodner. That was a subject they'd be revisiting today, she thought. The peephole revealed a lanky blonde woman she recognized as Charlie's ex and she opened the door determined to get an answer to a question she'd long wanted to drag from the woman.

Jennifer took in the appearance of the petite dark haired woman, she recognized as Charlie's partner, in a bathrobe with wet hair and assessed she had to be "with" Charlie, but while her head managed the leap, her heart stubbornly clung to the impression he would forever love her.

"Uh… Hi. Is Charlie here?" she managed, smiling weakly.

Dani held firm, leaning on the door. "He's meditating," she pronounced in an aloof and unapproachable tone that conveyed the message _go away_ clearly and unequivocally.

"I'm his wife," Jen introduced herself.

"Ex," Dani interjected.

"Yes," Jen demurred.

"You're his ex-wife," Dani said pointedly.

"Yes, Detective I know that," Jennifer said haughtily. There was an ugly, uncomfortable pause in which it was clear Dani was not going to let the woman in and Jennifer was not going to walk away.

"Would you give this to Charlie?" Jen said, as she tried to hand Dani an envelope, but Dani just stared at her.

"Answer me one question," Dani seemed to negotiate before she'd accept the proffered envelope.

Jen sighed but said nothing, her look conveyed _if I must_ and profound annoyance.

"How could you ever believe he'd kill anyone?" Dani's question cut directly to the point like a straight razor.

Jen stammered "I…uh…Charlie….he… we…," and flushed bright red.

Charlie entered from the portico to grab an orange and a towel as sweat dripped off him in the morning sun. He heard only the tail end of the conversation - Jen's panicked voice and Dani's caustic reply.

"Let me tell you something, if you knew even the first thing about him then you'd know he didn't - couldn't kill those people, which means either you didn't know him at all - or - that you didn't care. Either way - don't come back here," Dani said fiercely defiant in the face of the well-dressed woman who towered over her. She took the envelope and shut the door in Jen's face.

Dani pivoted and found herself face to face with Charlie who stood in the foyer with a towel around his neck and an orange in hand. He had a stern look on his face and marched past Dani to catch Jen.

"Jen," he called out. He waved at her kids in the backseat of her silver Lexus. "Hi, kids." The boy in his navy blazer waved tentatively back, but the girl was listening to an MP3 player and ignored him.

Jennifer froze halfway between her ex-husband and her new life. "Charlie….I." She stopped, unsure of what there was to say.

"It's okay," he smiled softly, "we both have other lives now, but I don't think we should see each other again."

"You're right, I shouldn't have come here," Jen confessed. "It's just that I…." and trailed off.

He stood looking at her for a long moment, but not in the way that he used to. Adoration was what Jen would have termed the look in Charlie's eyes and it was something she still found flattering even though she was married to someone else. However, that look was now reserved for someone else and it made her sad in a way.

He was no longer hers; she had wished him away all those long years ago and now someone else recognized his worth and was willing to fight for him. Charlie deserved that she concluded. He deserved the tempestuous woman who'd opened his door, dressed only in his bathrobe and armed only with attitude.

"Charlie, I'm sorry," she said emotionally. It seemed woefully inadequate, but Charlie had always known what she meant without her ever having to say.

"I know you are, Jen," Charlie said quietly, looking down.

Jen turned and walked to the driver's side of her car and paused. "She's right, Charlie. I never should have doubted you. You're lucky if you find someone in life who believes in you the way she does."

"I'm a lucky guy," Charlie smiled. His past evidenced anything but luck; however Charlie's look conveyed a belief his luck had changed. Then he said, "Goodbye, Jen," with a finality that made her know they would never again meet unless by accident. Charlie had finally moved on and she was the poorer for it. He waved at the kids again, who both returned his salute this time and walked into his house without a backwards glance.

* * *

Dani Reese was standing in the foyer in her bare feet, swallowed by his big white bathrobe, arms crossed, a furious scowl on her face and Jen's envelope in her hands. She was fuming.

Charlie looked down at her as he shut the door and heard it click into place behind him. He leaned against it as they both listened to the tires of Jen's car on the road and the waning sound of her engine as she drove away, out of their lives.

"Why'd you do that?" he asked her levelly, still calm and patient from his meditation.

"She doesn't deserve you," Dani spat the words out.

"She doesn't have me, honey… You do," Charlie told her, approaching slowly. "You are mad at her and not me, right?" She glared at him.

"That's my little demon," he chuckled and drew her into his arms. "We won't see her again, I promise," he talked to his mercurial mate in soothing tones.

"You're doing it again," Dani gritted out, "handling me," she acknowledged with the anger slowly leaking out of her minute by minute.

"Uh, huh," he admitted. "It's one of my Zen tricks. I'm working on pulling a rabbit out of my hat, but I can't find the hat at the moment…or the rabbit," he felt more than heard her laugh at his silliness.

'Let's go upstairs and see if you can find a way of expressing your affection for me…Something besides gutting my all ex-lovers and leaving their entrails on the lawn," he teased. This she outright laughed at, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Okay, but after you are making me pancakes," she replied her tone light and bathrobe slipping. "All your ex-lovers?" Her arched eyebrows betrayed by the devilish grin she wore.

"I can assure you _all_ is a small number, a very, very small number," he joked. They'd be just fine, Charlie concluded. Charlie would take this fiery, dark haired woman who robbed him of his Zen, distracted him to no end, but would defend him and believe in him to her dying day over his vacuous, leggy blonde ex any day.


	6. Chapter 6 Two Futures

**Two Futures**

It was well after noon when Charlie Crews woke again. He glanced down to find his partner awake and staring out the window, no doubt brain engaged and deep in thought. He'd learned over their three years together that Reese's mind was hardly ever at rest. It seemed as if she worked cases in her sleep and could simultaneously process a myriad of options and angles in her sharp, flexible mind.

What he brought to their partnering was something less definable; instinct and reflex earned through a curious existence and experience most people would not have lived to talk about. Charlie was able to intuit discreet, often invisible things others, even Dani, missed. He made illogical leaps based on his gut that often proved prescient.

Either of them would have easily been the strongest part of a two man team but together they were unstoppable. Instead of their strengths canceling each other out or bringing them into conflict, each had given a bit (albeit tentatively at first) to meld their talents together seamlessly. They were a powerful team, one Rayborn desperately wanted to co-opt into his little racket.

"What are you thinking?" He asked her softly.

"How come Ted hasn't come over here all morning?" she said. Whatever he'd been expecting that was not it.

"Uh…well, he's terrified of you. Well, not so much you - as your father," Charlie began in explanation. She shifted until she was looking at him while he spoke.

"When Ted was sent back inside, it was your father who…" he left the rest unspoken because her eyes told him she knew what he was going to say.

"That bastard," she swore softly.

"Ted or your father?" Charlie asked not entirely sure if she'd gotten past her father's return from the dead. She shot him an annoyed glance.

"You know full well he's a criminal, Crews," she was angry now, "but he's still my father." Her eyes reflected the conflict she felt. Dani's relationship with her father was complicated and fraught with things she'd only hinted at, but her family, like his, was small and they were all she really had.

"I know, honey, I know," he said gently.

"So Agent Bodner shot you?" She questioned, changing tacks on the fly.

Her question caught Charlie flatfooted and he tried to stammer through an acceptable response, knowing there really wasn't one. She wouldn't accept him keeping this from her. "Look I know what you're going to say…" he began.

"No, you don't," she said flatly. "You have no idea what I'm going to say, you're just scared I'll be pissed," she told him honestly.

"Well, uh, yeah…" he exhaled heavily. "I don't want you to be mad at me, but I shouldn't have lied to you."

"I suppose that's close enough to qualify as an apology." She considered his comments, while he watched her closely. "I'm tired of being angry about things in the past, things I can't change," she said thoughtfully.

Charlie felt as if a lightning bolt struck him. It was a big step for Dani to let go of anger, her first and thus far best response. It spoke of a tiny spark of faith and the belief that she could live a more controlled, peaceful life. His heart soared and he couldn't contain the broad smile his heart felt.

He then rewarded her step toward peace with truth. "Bodner didn't really have a choice. He told me he came home one day and Roman was in his house, having tea with his wife and playing with his children. In his house, with his family, can you imagine how scary that had to be?"

She hummed an affirmative response, while tracing the long knife scar on his lower abdomen with her nail. "I can't imagine, but I think my father can." This made Charlie consider what he would do to protect Dani Reese and what her father may have done to do the same. Made a pact with the devil, maybe.

Dani interrupted his thoughts with another question, she was all questions today. "Has anyone ever threatened your family, Crews?"

"I've never had one," he admitted to her and to himself with a puzzled expression, like he'd just figured it out. "I was an only child and…" but trailed off and didn't finish the thought, looking a bit forlorn.

"What about..." she paused searching for the right word to use. Sorting through her options she discarded wife, ex-wife, Jennifer and decided on "what's her name" still clearly pissed at the woman.

Charlie looked down and caught her eye as he laughed at her efforts to depersonalize Jen. Dani clearly disliked his ex, although he was unsure if it was motivated by jealously or Jen's betrayal of him.

"Oh, we tried, but it never happened. That must have been me because she has two kids now," his response somewhat sad with an added "I always wanted a family" under his breath to himself.

"You'll have one," Dani promised and he looked down at her trying to determine what made her so sure. She was looking far into the distance thinking again and he asked her a question of his own.

"Do you think anything on that tape does us any good?"

"It's worthless criminally. He never says anything specific enough about how their operation runs. I told you he talks and talks but never says anything." Her words and tone were brittle and frustrated. "Except that comment about Tidwell…"

Charlie trod very lightly when it came to Dani's ex-lover and their current boss, "Maybe….there are a lot of Captains in LAPD," he ventured.

"Oh, he meant Tidwell," she said with conviction. "Didn't you ever wonder why he…" then she thought better of her train of thought and finished, "never mind."

Charlie framed her face and made her look at him while he spoke. "Just because he dated you doesn't mean anything… anyone would want to date you. You're smart, beautiful, and full of surprises," he smiled sincerely.

"You're so full of shit, but I love you," she kissed him.

"Now get out of bed. We have to deal with Ted. He's probably barricaded himself in the garage," she said wryly. "Oh and when you were listing my wonderful qualities you forgot my cheerful disposition," she tossed back over her shoulder as she walked to the bathroom for her second shower of the day.

"No, I didn't," Charlie said. She turned and arched her eyebrows at him.

He rolled on his side, his lower body still hidden by their wrinkled sheets, "You don't have anything approaching a cheerful disposition, sweetheart." He smiled sweetly adding, "especially not in the morning and definitely not until you are properly caffeinated."

Dani, for her part, pulled out her patented glare and leveled it at him.

He paused a moment while she stared at him and then put his head on his hand and finished, "That glaring at me thing with the eyebrows…works a whole lot better when you are wearing clothes," he grinned at her. She huffed and walked off, but he knew she was smiling too.

* * *

Charlie lounged in his bed in the sun like a cat and stretched. He didn't join Dani in the shower because he knew where it would lead and they really did need to talk with Ted and game plan before work on Monday. His eyes fluttered shut and he listened to the sound of water from the bathroom.

Then he was dreaming, dreaming he was sleeping. It was earlier in the morning, but in the same house, the same bed, but somehow different. Rays of sunlight peeked into the room through the window and when he shifted his vision down a small girl of about four was tugging on his hand.

"Daddy, rabbit and me had a bad dream. Can we sleep wif you and mommy?" she said in an adorable lisp, all seriousness in her dark curls and feet in pajamas to guard against the cold marble floors.

Charlie quickly checked to make sure he was wearing pants and pulled the covers aside welcoming her. "Come here, angel," Charlie smiled. The child grinned back and in that instant he saw Dani Reese's smile, as she slung the stuffed rabbit across his chest with one hand and churned her remaining limbs to clamber up the bed and on to his chest.

Charlie wrapped his arm around her, to assist in her determined efforts and was chastised by a determined "I can do it" from his daughter. Again he was reminded of the stubborn streak in Dani Reese. He was momentarily surprised at the little girl's lightness and fragility before gathering her to his chest, where she snuggled her head under his chin and sighed contentedly. She smelled like sunshine and baby shampoo.

"Bad dream, baby?" Dani's sleepy voice questioned from his right side where he felt her warmth along the length of his body. Dani stroked her daughter's hair as Charlie drew the covers over her them and tangled his right hand in Dani's dark tresses.

"Monsters," the child scowled and yawned mightily, "but I told rabbit Daddy will save us," she pronounced with conviction. "Yeah, Daddy will protect you baby," Dani told her daughter. Charlie smiled both in his dream and in his sleep.

"Hey, get up," Dani laughed throwing a pillow at him from the foot of the bed. She was freshly showered and dressed. "Shower, shave and you promised me pancakes, mister." She remarked as she bounced from the room in a good mood.

Charlie's face took on a strange countenance. He often dreamed of his family, the one he wanted. But in the past, there were always blonde kids with green eyes like himself and Jen. They were always in their old house together, in his gone but not forgotten past.

This dream was different, he was different, and it was in this house, this bed, with this woman. This time he did not dream of the past; this time when he dreamt it was of his future.


	7. Chapter 7 The Envelope

**Light thinks it travels faster than anything, but it is wrong.**

**No matter how fast light travels; it finds that darkness has always gotten there first – and is waiting for it. ---Terry Pratchett**

**The Envelope**

After Dani chased him from the kitchen, Charlie walked across to Ted's garage apartment to invite him over for pancakes. As it turned out, flinging pancakes into the air and catching them in a frying pan was not quite as simple as it looked. After he lost the third one in the air, Dani sent him packing pronouncing she was hungry and with him cooking they might never eat.

Charlie smiled tightly and beat a hasty retreat with a tall glass of orange juice in hand and Dani grumbling in the background.

Ted was more than a little nervous and dressed far more seriously than either of them. Charlie and Dani were both still barefoot, he with jeans, a t-shirt and light hoodie, she in jeans and a Department sweatshirt. Ted was dressed in chinos with a long sleeved shirt tucked in and properly buttoned, plus he wore shoes, socks and a belt, prompting Charlie to inquire if he was trying to impress Dani.

"No, I just…no," he stammered.

"Okay, just so you know…she's my girl, Ted," Charlie joked.

This made his friend grin despite his anxiousness. "And her father already knows about us, she told him," Charlie bragged lightly, thinking back to the night before at Rayborn's penthouse.

"Oh yeah… how'd that go Charlie?" Ted asked, his comments dripping with sarcasm. "How'd the man who set you up for murder take it when you told him you were sleeping with his daughter?"

Charlie cast his friend a sideways glance as he swung the front door open and the smell of bacon hit him. "Doesn't that smell great," Charlie offered, completely ignoring Ted's comment.

When they reached the kitchen, there were three plates with scrambled eggs, bacon and slices of cantaloupe on the marble island. "Help yourself," Dani said pouring herself coffee.

"I thought we were having pancakes?" Charlie asked quizzically. Dani shot him a dirty look, prompting him to add, "but I love eggs. Eggs are great."

"Yes, Mister make a mess of the kitchen and bail. Eggs _are_ great," she commented dryly, filling a coffee cup for Ted who nodded his thanks.

"You threw me out. Threw me out of my own house, I might add," Charlie grinned as Dani's eyebrows shot northwards and she tried to glare and him and failed.

Ted looked suspiciously at their back and forth, but the banter seemed good-natured. Then there was a long pause during which no one said anything and Dani simply sipped her coffee and watched the two men eat.

Charlie finally started. "Uh, Ted, you know Dani Reese." Which sounded stupid even to him. He resisted the impulse to slap himself in the forehead and instead picked up a piece of bacon and took a bite. "Uh…well…Dani lives here now, Ted. She knows everything I do…about everything," gesturing with the bacon toward the study and their side investigation.

"Eat your food, Crews, stop playing with it," Dani chastised him.

Ted watched as to his great surprise Charlie did what he was told. He knew Dani Reese was a tough cookie and smart cop, but watching them interact on this level was something new. She was definitely the one in charge, both at work and apparently now at home. He watched as Charlie left his plate to refill his orange juice glass and offered her some silently. She shook him off and then when his back was turned returning the OJ to the fridge, she deliberately drank from his glass, making Ted snort a short laugh.

"Look Ted, I know this is more than a little awkward," Dani offered, watching as Charlie examined his juice glass and narrowed his eyes at her. She just smirked back at him.

"You two are good together," Ted blurted out, surprising everyone himself included.

Dani blushed furiously, but said nothing further, instead watching Charlie's approach unsure of what he intended. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and stole a piece of her bacon. "That's what I keep telling her."

Charlie took in Dani's embarrassment at his display of obvious affection and changed the subject. "So, Ted," he looked up from Dani and redirected the conversation, "how was Spain?"

"It was good," his friend continued, "great really. What's in these eggs?" he asked Dani.

"A little milk, pinch of sugar, some cheese and a lot of garlic salt," she responded without thought.

"They're fantastic," Ted gushed.

"Thanks," Dani said, smiling easily at his compliment.

"We have garlic salt?" Charlie questioned, making everyone laugh.

"I haven't had a decent home cooked breakfast since Rachel left," Ted offered.

Dani turned her head sideways and looked hard at Charlie. He quickly explained, "Honey, you remember Rachel? You met her here that day…"

"…you shot your father." Ted and Dani responded in unison.

"Okay, not one of my better days," Charlie admitted wiping his mouth. "But he did break in." Neither of his breakfast companions had a response for that.

Dani was still looking quizzically at him and her look said _spill it_, so he did.

"I sent Rachel away after Roman made a comment about her. He knew she was here and threatened that something could happen to her….something bad." He explained the _other woman_ who was really just a girl to his partner, again. "Rachel had so much go wrong in her short 18 years, she deserves some peace. I hope she found it." Charlie closed the subject.

Dani seemed to mull what he'd said and dropped the subject, leading him to believe she considered the subject closed. Later he would discover it was anything but.

This would work out Charlie thought. We can all be friends.

Then Ted spoke, remarking on the plain white envelope, forgotten on the kitchen counter. "What's in the package?" Not knowing that opening it would change all their lives.

* * *

Charlie took the now finished breakfast plates to the kitchen sink and studied the envelope from a distance. Thinking about how the last time Jen sent him a packet of papers, it was divorcing him - in prison. He remembered the day, the hour, the instant of the blow – some times it felt like he was still being struck by it. His heart raced, he was panicky with no apparent stimuli, the mere memory of his divorce was enough to freak him out. That envelope and the message it contained nearly killed him. They'd had more than enough drama for one morning.

"I'll open it later," he pronounced, wiping his hands, "probably just some worthless old things from another lifetime." He stiff-armed the potential bad news trying to stay centered in the now. His now was pretty great and he had no desire to go back or to go forward. He could easily stay in this now – with Dani Reese – forever.

Dani's twisted grin let on that she knew was about to employ some Zen, leading Charlie to realize he'd become far too predictable to his young partner. She knew and understood him so well. He swallowed his handy Zen quip, cleared his throat, wiped his wet hands on his blue jeans and seemed unsure of where to go next.

"Go on, say it," she rolled her eyes, "you got some goofy Zen thing you're just dying to say," her grin devilish and inviting in the same instant. "Say it."

"The surest way to ruin a moment is to let it remind you of something else," Charlie said a bit shyly.

"Nothing about you reminds me of anyone else, Crews," she told him smiling. Her understanding of what he was trying to say shone in her eyes.

Ted watched them interact, as Charlie rocked back and forth on his heels and jammed his hands in his pockets, Dani approached him, placing her own small hands lightly on his arms; she convinced him to relax without a word and Charlie's hands reappeared.

Ted realized Charlie was a little off balance; he related best to people 'one on one' and the bigger the crowd got the less comfortable he was. Perhaps it was a by product of so much time spent alone, or maybe just his need to connect and that could only occur one person at a time. He also considered that Charlie was more anxious about the contents of the envelope than he let on, but whatever the cause he was on edge. He continued to eye is suspiciously, like it might grow legs and walk off or explode.

"Why don't you open it now and save us all the suspense?" Ted offered.

"Okay, I'll open it. I should open it," he said, but found his hands a bit shaky. Things were going so well, what if it held bad news, some other secret from his past that no one really wanted to know anyway.

"It won't bite you, Charlie," Dani coached, "go on." He stepped to the counter, retrieved and tore the large envelope open from one end and peered inside. It held a smaller envelope and a packet of papers. He withdrew the small envelope and immediately recognized the elegant script on the surface as his mothers.

Charlie set the letter on the counter and pushed it away from him. The gasp he let out was small, nearly unnoticeable to other people, but Dani noticed and quickly closed the distance to him. She slipped her hand into his, whispering, "what is it?"

"That's my mother's handwriting," he said voice trembling.

Dani sighed realizing that his hard won peace from meditation was slipping away and she wondered if they'd made a mistake opening the package. But they could not go back now, only forward.

"My mother died while I was in prison," Charlie choked on the words as he sunk to the barstool beside him.

Dani listened silently and waited for the hard words to come.

"My mother was the only one who believed in me, but after I was convicted, _he_ wouldn't let her come see me. _He_ wouldn't let her come see me and it killed her. She died, never knowing….never knowing that I was innocent." When he spoke it was as if the words were pulled from his soul, like teeth. It was heartbreaking to watch and all she could do was hold his hand, but suddenly Charlie turned to her and buried his head in her neck, pulled her impossibly close and tears welling in his eyes. It was unsettling to see such grief from a man who scarcely frowned or showed even the slightest discomfort.

Ted was beside himself and out his element. Several times he opened his mouth, but no words would come, or not the right ones. He kept his head down and quietly slunk from the room, unable to help and unsure of what else to do.

Dani held her partner tightly while he composed himself and when he drew back she told him simply, "She knew, Charlie." He looked at her through his tears, unsure of himself in a way she'd never seen before; it was frightening the depth of the loss in his pale blue eyes.

"She knew, because she knew you Charlie. She knew you never could have killed those people." This time her words permeated his sadness and he nodded mutely.

Slowly Charlie reached for the envelope and using his thumbnail opened the seal. Inside was a single sheet of high quality parchment, again bearing the elegant handwriting of his mother. He paused and remembered. "She used to take three tries to write me a note for school, you know. She had to have it exactly right. She writes so beautifully."

Dani agreed silently. Then he began to read while he blinked back tears. Dani was quiet and still for a moment, but then busied herself cleaning up to give him some measure of privacy. This wasn't something he needed an audience for, nor did she want to leave him alone with it.

He finished and blinked several times, clearing his eyes and smiled. It was a good letter, Dani realized. Good for Charlie, he was happy.

"You were right," he said, "she said she knew."

Her own simple smile mirrored his. "That's good Charlie," she said softly.

"You remind me of her sometimes," he offered.

Dani cocked her head in astonishment. "That's sweet, but I seriously doubt your mother was a stubborn, foul mouthed, alcoholic," she spelled out what she viewed as her defining qualities.

'That's not what I see when I see you," he told her plainly, "you have some questionable habits, but what I see when I look at you is determination, grace, a strong spirit and will, like my mother. She was amazing, just like you are." Dani was silent in her acceptance of his solemn compliment.

"And you both believe me," he more quietly.

She took his hands in her own stepped close to him, standing between his knees as he perched on the bar stool, legs wide. She started twice before she was able to get the words out. "It's not so much that I believe you, Charlie. It's that I believe _in_ you." She paused and bit her bottom lip nervously and continued. "When Roman had me, I knew you'd come, I didn't know how, or when, but I knew you'd come," she confessed.

"Just like my mom," he smiled tears still shining in his eyes. "She says in her letter that she knew I would be exonerated. She was only sorry that she wouldn't be there to see me walk in the sun again, free."

It was a deeply personal letter, one she would never dare to read or ask him about or hope to see, but he shared it freely. From him poured the thoughts of the woman who loved him first, shared with the woman who loved him best.

"She sent these things, from the house, from my father's files. She said they could help prove I didn't do it. I don't know what that means and I can't look at them now, but I want you to," he explained.

"Charlie…" she warned softly.

"No," he interrupted smiling, "you're my partner, I trust you with everything." His heart laid bare, he gave her control of the thing most important to him without hesitation. It wasn't clear to her why these things had come to light now and not years prior, why Jen had held onto them so long, but then she realized she never really gave the woman time to explain and she was somewhat responsible for them not knowing the answer to those questions.

Charlie seemed to sense her distress and the conflict in her dark eyes was apparent to him. "It's the past, we can learn from it, but we can't change it and I don't want to relive it. I like where are now."

"Me too," she admitted quietly and kissed him tenderly.

* * *

Dani took the documents into the study and began to examine them. Before long the innate sleuth in her took over and the rest of the world disappeared as she poured over the documents from long ago.

Charlie announced he was going out and left so fast he was gone before she'd really looked up. He was like that sometimes, melting into the landscape like a big cat, visible one moment and vanished the next. She chewed thoughtfully on a pencil and considered calling his cell to check on him, but felt it was too stalker-ish. Crews was a grown up and when he needed space she'd give it to him. He had similar respect for her, except those times when he felt her self-destructive bent would overtake her.

Her knowledge of Charlie's suspicions and research allowed her to formulate a solid theory. It turned out the key piece of paper in the puzzle was a simple business document for the start up of Charlie's father's company. It was a security business, founded in the late 1970's; the same security firm who handled the Bank of LA internal security. And there, plain as day, on the bottom of the loan application for the business initiation were two names, Charles Crews Senior and Mickey Rayborn. She sat back on her heels with papers strewn around her on the floor. _Could it really be that simple? _

A bunch of cops from the same academy class hatch a plot to knock over a bank, but they take their time. It takes years for them to establish one of them in a reputable security business and win a job like security for a bank. Meanwhile, her father, Jack Reese, rose to the level of SWAT Captain and that took what? Maybe 12 years.

Of course, by then many of Crews Senior's academy mates had a robust stable of snitches and street contacts, so they put together a crew full of thieves and miscreants and set them up as patsies, never meant to survive the robbery, which was a sham from the beginning. An ingenious and daring idea.

On the day of the job, Jack Reese sets up SWAT training a block from the bank. They control all aspects; bank security, their own crew of handpicked bad guys and the swift, immediate and lethal police response. It was masterful really and overwhelmingly frightening - the degree of planning and preparation, years of it, that went into this enterprise.

Patience, she thought, this spoke of profound patience and trust among this group of men. These weren't street thugs or hooligans. These men were professional, precise and deadly. This was organized crime inside the LAPD. They really had no idea how far it went and who they owned. _What had Rayborn said?_ "You won't be the only people we have." He'd obviously meant they had dozens of cops bought and paid for in high placed positions.

The questioned still remained, "why send Charlie Crews to prison," she shook her head and stuck the pencil through the hair at the base of her ponytail, to begin cleaning up the mess at her feet.

"Hi," he said shyly from the door jam where he leaned. For a moment her breath caught, his near silent approach surprising her. She'd heard someone enter, but just assumed it was Crews coming home.

"How'd you get in here?" she questioned sternly, scowling at him.

"Your boyfriend never locks his doors," he taunted and for the first time since she met him Dani Reese found herself afraid of Captain Kevin Tidwell.


	8. Chapter 8 The Most Unlikely of Saviors

**The Most Unlikely of Saviors**

"What are you doing here?" she asked Tidwell, who was dressed for work in his black three button suit. She recognized it as the one they'd shopped for together, back when _they _were together. He still looked good in it.

"I called your cell, but you don't seem to want to talk to me," he confessed.

She looked down and sighed, not wanting to go where they were headed next. But that thought made her think of Crews and his explanation that you had to be in the moment no matter how good or bad it was - because that was reality. She accepted this as fact and looked up to greet this moment and whatever it held.

"I came here a couple times. I knew you'd be here. Knew you'd be with him. But then my luck changed and today he just drove away," he gestured with his hand in the air, like a plane taking off, which made no sense to anyone but Tidwell and her - since she spoke the man's strange verbally confused shorthand.

"Yeah, well…he'll be back and you shouldn't be here," she warned.

"Dani, why won't you talk to me?" He asked her seriously.

"Ever since that thing with Roman, you shut me out. I was worried sick about you. Turned over every rock in Southern California looking for that skell. Crews just got there first." He sounded disappointed about that fact like it was a competition not about saving her life. It annoyed her more than it should have.

"I don't want to do this," she warned. "I'd like you to leave." She climbed to her feet and pointed to the door.

"I'll leave, but first you'll answer my question." He stood firm. She'd never known him to be mean, but now in the back of her mind there was a question. _Did he work for them? Was his interest in her ever real or just to give them leverage with Crews?_

Dani, for all her toughness, was incredibly fragile and vulnerable underneath. It was the reason for the high walls and tough exterior - to keep people from getting close. But Kevin Tidwell had gotten close and part of her still felt affection for him. She knew it now for what it was. It was not love. It was nowhere near the depth of feeling for and connection that she had with Crews. But instead she acknowledged the simple affection she used to feel for the man who stood before her. It made her unsure and uncomfortable.

Just then, the front door opened and the most unlikely of saviors appeared, in the form of Ted Early.

"Uh… Hi, is everything alright?" he looked to Dani for an answer, her discomfort was apparent even to him.

"Who….who are you?" he directed the question at the police captain.

"Captain Kevin Tidwell, LAPD," he pronounced, puffing himself up.

"Oh…. right…so are you here on official police business Captain?" Ted inquired innocently.

"No, I just wanted to check in on Dani, I mean Detective Reese," he said, his tight smile not reaching his eyes. Ted gravitated to Dani's side and tried his best to look tough.

"Well, as you can see she's just fine." He stood slightly in front of his friend's girlfriend, the most unlikely of champions, trying to defend her and doing a mighty job of projecting an authority he didn't feel.

"But we're late. We…. Dani and I… we are meeting Charlie for brunch...lunch…uh, food and we're….wow, look at the time… running so late, " he looked at his watch and remarked.

"Okay," Tidwell acquiesced, knowing it was a ruse, but letting it go. "I'll see you back at the precinct on Monday, Detective and we'll finish this discussion," he threatened obliquely and let himself out.

Dani breathed an audible sigh of relief and Ted stammered his concern. "Are you… you're okay, right?" She nodded. "I looked up and saw this strange car and the front door standing open and got worried, not that I need to worry. I'm sure you can handle yourself, but I just thought…well, and then there was this guy… and you…you didn't look so happy."

Dani stopped his rambling speech by leaning close and whispering, "Ted? You did the right thing. Thanks." She placed a chaste kiss lightly on his cheek and drew back.

Ted for his part blushed furiously and his shoes suddenly became very interesting to him. "You're my best friend's girl. What kind of guy would I be if I didn't at least try to look out for you?" he offered, a little embarrassed.

Charlie came through the front door with a bag of groceries from the farmer's market in his arms in time to see Dani kiss Ted's cheek. He pulled his glasses down on his nose and smiled quizzically, "Ted? Remember our talk about whose girl she is?"

Everyone laughed and the moment was broken like a soap bubble in the wind.

* * *

Charlie, as it turned, out had purchased every variety of ripe fruit available from all of the farmer's market stands. It was far more than he could eat and Dani shook her head and showed him her palm. "Uh-uh. You're not pushing that fruit on me, " she laughed at him.

"That's all yours," she smiled conspiratorially. "Ted and I are ordering pizza."

Ted just stood there looking flummoxed and stammered, "That's….okay, I like pizza, Charlie. And I don't even really know what a kumquat is. Do you peel them or just eat them whole?"

Time had flown by as she examined and pieced together the components of the conspiracy and it was now late in the afternoon. They were all looking forward to dinner – real food, not fruit. _Only Crews could eat fruit for every meal, _Dani thought as she left the room to phone the pizza order in.

Charlie's eyes darkened to a storm-cloud grey and he became very serious, as serious as Ted had ever seen him since prison. He looked like he might do violence.

"I was not hitting on her, Charlie. I swear. She kissed me," he stated defensively.

Charlie rolled his eyes. "I know that. I'm not mad at you, Ted. What was Tidwell doing here?" he questioned, sounding and looking dark and dangerous.

"I don't know, I think I interrupted something, but I'm not sure…" Ted offered with a shrug of his shoulders. It wasn't his fault that he couldn't help, but it frustrated Charlie further. He sighed heavily and ran a hand through his short red hair.

"Why don't you ask her?" Ted stated the obvious way to get to the bottom of his quandary. Charlie just arched his brows and returned an incredulous stare.

"B-because you can't ask her…." Ted nodded as understanding dawned.

"Hey," Dani shouted as she walked with her cell from the kitchen, "what do you want on your pizza Ted?"

Ted looked sheepishly from Charlie to the grocery bags of fruit and then offered "Pepperoni?" Charlie just scowled.

Dani turned to inquire from Charlie and just as he was going to open his mouth warned "No fruit, Crews. It's a rule, pizza and fruit don't mix." He looked down at his shoes, as Dani returned to the phone, whilst giving him a patented Reese look.

"Give me two mediums, one with pepperoni and sausage," she directed, "and one with ham and pineapple," she said more quietly. Charlie smiled softly and his heart swelled, she knew him so well.

* * *

Charlie was on the patio, long after pizza, eating red grapes and spitting the seeds over the side of the hill below, while Dani brought him up to speed on her findings. A few times he'd silently offer her one, and each time she'd reply, "pass" but was beginning to look tempted.

Finally, he pulled up chair, flicked open his ever-present knife and carefully sliced the grape in two and removed the seeds with his blade, before offering the clean and neat slices to his partner. She seemed to consider his effort and accepted them one at a time. She chewed thoughtfully as the little morsels released a crisp flavor into her mouth.

"Good, huh?" he offered cautiously.

"I guess." She sounded unconvinced. "They take some getting used to." And then offered in explanation, "I'm only familiar with the grape in it's liquid version. You know wine?" she joked at her own weakness.

"But it's so much better like this, pure, uncorrupted….perfect." He whirled a whole grape around in his fingers. "I love grapes," he sighed his satisfaction with the simple fruit.

"Is there a fruit you don't like?" Dani asked sarcasm dripping from her question.

"Breadfruit," he pronounced. "I don't get it. Is it bread or is it fruit?" he was somewhat serious, but Dani just snorted a short laugh.

"Also fruitcake as it turns out is equally unappealing, but I did try it, which is more than I can say for you. Miss turns up her nose at anything remotely fruitlike," he kidded. Dani's eyes rolled dramatically.

They were once again relaxed and content. Their highs seemed higher and lows lower all day long, like a dramatic roller coaster of a Saturday. But this was a thrill ride he'd willingly experience over and over, if she'd only sit beside him and hold his hand, he thought.

"Did you hear any of what I told you about the conspiracy or has the wonder of grapes blinded you to the larger evils of the world?" she offered lightly.

"I heard. It's what I already knew. Your father and my father are both very bad men," he concluded, while slicing open and deseeding another grape for her. "They have been from the start," he paused, "but who they are, what they did, what they continue to do, is not who we are," he finished licking his fingers.

"Is it really that simple?" she asked with genuine interest in his answer.

"Who were you before you were born? Or more accurately what was your face before your mother and father met?" He repeated the Zen koan. She gave him nothing but a dull stare so he explained.

"We are not them. I am not a convict. You are not an alcoholic. Those were just things we did. They are in the past. They aren't who we are." She stared silently at him and just when he thought she was going to tell him how full of shit he was, she nodded solemnly and understanding shone in her dark eyes.

"Where do we go from here?" she asked simply.

"Forward. Ahead is all there is, except that's the future and as I've explained there really isn't any future, there's just now. Us - Living each moment as completely…" he paused as she rose and walked toward him.

She stopped and sat in his lap, "go on," she encouraged.

"Uh, well…I forget…" he offered honestly as she kissed his lower lip. She twisted in his lap and the grapes were forgotten as well. She so completely satisfied him that he truly thought food, drink and air might not be necessary as long as he had her.

She felt his hand leave the grapes and slide slowly up her thigh, as she twisted the grapes hit the floor with a dull thump. Half a second later, there was a decidedly metallic ting as Charlie's beloved knife slipped from his hand as he encircled her rib cage. If he missed either, there was no sign of it. His fingers flexed against the rough skin of her jeans and found the creases between her ribs as he pulled her closer still. Their kiss deepened and he made that growl of his that told her just how bad he wanted her.

Dani became lost. There was no distraction, no sound, no smell, no feeling but the strong lean man who held her. His kiss was intense, but controlled. He seemed to draw her closer to him with each breath. The house disappeared, the world disappeared, she knew only Charlie. If this was being lost, she'd gladly wander with him for the rest of her life.


	9. Chapter 9 Dashboard Confessions

**Dashboard Confessions**

It was Monday morning and that took them back to work, to the job they both loved and lived for - Robbery/Homicide. After the events of the weekend, those words took on a whole new meaning and an entirely different context. Charlie joked in the elevator that he half expected to find a squad of detectives planning LAPD's next heist. Dani tried to look like the idea surprised her, but her smirk fell short of actually expressing surprise.

Shortly after they arrived, hung up their coats and logged onto their respective computers to get down to the business of police work, which involved a lot more paperwork than Charlie thought it should, Kevin Tidwell rose from his desk and walked to his door determined to have serious words with Dani Reese and put things in perspective for them both. He didn't like the way she'd simply left their relationship. It felt unfinished, not that he wanted it to be over, he just wanted something else.

He watched the comfortable ease of the interplay between the two Detectives as she commented "Since when do you do paperwork anyway, Crews?" alluding to the fact she did the lion's share of their report writing. Crews tried to look offended, but ended up simply grinning at her. "That's what I thought," she smiled back.

"Detective? A word?" Tidwell spoke to Dani, interrupting the moment.

There was a look exchanged between the two Detectives that did not go unnoticed by Tidwell. Crews seemed ready to rise and intervene when she shook him off with a slight move of her head and a dark glare. He settled back into his seat, as she turned to face her Captain. Dani Reese's face held no welcoming smile for him. _What a difference a couple __of __months could make_ he thought.

They entered his office and she quietly closed the door. Charlie sat in his chair brooding. He was intensely interested in what was going on in that room, but had stayed seated because of her wish to handle this alone. He respected it, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

To distract himself, Charlie flicked open his knife and began to cut slices from a Fuji apple, to share with Dani when she came out, although Reese rarely accepted his offers of fruit. But the grapes the other night gave him hope for her.

He could see only Reese's back, but the tenseness in her body was clearly visible to him and her arms folded across her body showed her desire to protect her heart. He wanted to do that for her, but she wouldn't allow it.

What he really wanted to do was pummel Tidwell into oblivion for good measure, but she probably wouldn't allow that either. The image of him hitting Tidwell hard made him smile for a fraction of a second and then he shook it from his head and returned to watching his partner, while trying to appear thoroughly uninterested.

Tidwell's face flushed and he shook his head, two strong non-verbal signs that informed Charlie that things were not going well for their Captain. Charlie, who'd been on the receiving end of Reese's anger more than once, knew the fury she could summon and thought Tidwell deserved every ounce of it.

He smiled, thinking of the damage his little demon could inflict when properly motivated. Charlie knew she had Tidwell's number and that he had no idea what he was in for. She had Tidwell stone cold dead to rights.

"So you were looking for me too?" She asked pointedly.

Hell, yeah," He responded enthusiastically. "Raided the warehouse where Roman had you. Just missed you too," he tried a little too hard.

"Yeah?" she prodded. "And just how'd you find that place, Captain?"

"I heard a train under all that stuff on the video Crews brought in here," he bragged.

Dani stood stubbornly with her arms folded, thoroughly unconvinced.

"I told them I heard something and when you're from NYC you never forget the sound of a subway," Tidwell continued anxiously.

"You know what," she started, "that's bullshit. You know it and I know it."

Tidwell stammered "D…Da…Dani, how can you think that?" She glared at him.

"Tell me something," he taunted, now angry with her, "why'd you talk to Crews on the tape? Why not me? Didn't you know I'd come for you? Why do you have more faith in him than me? Why have you always thought he cared for you more than I did, than I still do?" His voice rose as he spat out the questions rapid-fire, all his fears escaping in a rambling series of concerns voiced aloud.

"I'll tell you how," her voice now low and dangerous, "because you sent me there to the FBI in the first place. Sent me to the FBI for a job that was never about me - it was always about Crews, about setting him up. All they ever asked me about was him, and I think you knew it. I think it's why you sent me, no one else, just me. Crews' partner." Her look was stern and she wasn't backing away from the accusation.

His eyes left hers, flicked across the room and out into the bay where Crews sat at his desk, watching, but trying not to look like he was watching. "He put you up to this?" he questioned, never bothering to deny what she'd leveled at him. When his eyes returned they wouldn't meet hers.

"He doesn't control me. Neither do you Captain." Dani said flatly. "Thanks for not answering me – because that's an answer too," she pronounced as she turned on her heel and left his office.

"We believe what we want to believe," Tidwell said quietly to the back of his retreating former lover. He knew he would never again hold any interest for Dani Reese and that bridge once burned could not be rebuilt. He'd lost her for good and he really did like the mercurial brunette. This was not at all what he signed up for.

* * *

"So…." Charlie said as she stormed from Tidwell's office, "how'd it…" but was cut off by her curt and more than a little angry directive, "Let's go." Not wanting to be part of Reese's blast radius, he wisely grabbed his jacket and nimbly caught up to her by the time she'd reached the elevator.

He could sense her distress, one that caused her bottom lip to tremble slightly and her eyes to water with tears. He gently took her elbow and guided her to the left, not wanting to wait for the impossibly slow elevator. "Let's take the stairs," he urged and she let herself be led into the quietness of the stairwell.

She marched down them like she was racing, prompting Charlie to jump ahead a few steps and turn to face her. "Reese, stop."

She was near his height now, with him standing on a lower stair and he could easily look directly into her dark eyes. They were so dark they appeared black, but he could not tell what caused that color – anger, fear, confusion – all were bad, painful options.

"Breathe, honey, just breathe… for me," he pleaded. She shook her head furiously and tried to walk past him, but with his long reach he easily captured both guardrails and held her firmly with his eyes. "Dani, listen to me," he begged.

She started to turn and head back up the stairs and then stopped. "What? What Charlie…what can you possibly say to make this better?"

What had happened between her and Tidwell had cut deep, he realized. There was still a part of her that wanted to believe Tidwell was not using her to get to him. Betrayal, the deepest cut of all. He stood aside and let her pass, she was enraged and there was no assuaging her blazing anger for now.

* * *

They made their way to the car in silence and drove out of the parking lot towards a residential area of the city. He was unsure of their ultimate destination and he was damned sure he was not going to make the mistake of asking about it.

"I need a drink," Dani muttered under her breath.

"No, Reese, you don't. You don't," he said softly. "You're past that, you're better than that. That doesn't hurt him, that hurts you," he told her.

"I know that, Crews. But that's kinda the point. That's what I do." Her tone was bitter and he could tell she'd regressed a bit to the self-pity and anger that came so easily for her.

"No one likes to be made a fool of," he offered.

"Just leave it alone, Charlie," she warned, her tone caustic.

"He fooled me too. I bought it. When we went to the FBI, he made a big show of how pissed off he was. Threw things - we actually had guns drawn on us, inside the FBI," he paused and looked at her.

Reese looked like she was in actual physical pain, like she might be ill. He reached out to touch her arm and she wrested away from him. "I don't want your help. I just want you to sit there and not say anything, okay? Can you do that? Can you be quiet for five minutes?"

Charlie nodded mutely and sat very still watching her. Dani Reese at times was like a caged wild animal and this was one of those times. The wildness inside her could be tempered, but not tamed. It was always there, just beneath the surface. Like his rage, Charlie realized, sublimated but never truly gone.

He really couldn't help her, but he could not stop himself from trying. So he began again and even as he drew the breath to speak he watched her eyes roll back.

"You really can't do it can you, Charlie? Be quiet for five fucking minutes. Can you?" she taunted.

"Can you not be angry for five minutes?" he responded in kind, but gentler. "Let's have a contest and see who can last longer? Pull the car over," he directed. "I promised to be quiet for five minutes, if you promise to not be angry for that time."

She pulled to the curb with the intent of pummeling him to a pulp. She stepped from the car, not bothering to look for traffic and was nearly hit by a passing car. Charlie paled and was conspicuously quiet. Dani rounded the car and headed straight at him without even seeming to notice. She strode purposefully, until she stood toe to toe with him.

"Now just…" he began.

"Quiet…" she said, putting her hand firmly to his mouth. The contact of his soft lips against her hand shocked her. She held her hand there as Charlie gently covered it with his own and kissed her palm. "Charlie, don't…" she warned.

"Shhh…" he quietly shushed her. She could feel the sensation of his lips moving more than hear his effort, but it effectively silenced her. It renewed their connection. As he closed on her personal space, Charlie could feel the heat radiating off her body. He reached for her and she stiffened, but did not pull away. He paused a second before pulling lightly and she came to him without protest. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his head in her neck sighing heavily.

He felt her anger slowly abate like heat leaving the stones in a sauna and her body began to relax. Her tears came silently, wetting his shirt, but it was the only outward sign she was in any distress. He stood very still and just held his partner and his breath - for what seemed like a very long time, but was in fact just a matter of minutes.

She slowly wound her arms around his back under his suit coat and held him back. When she pushed back and looked up at him the anger was gone. His Dani was there and she hurt.

"Honey, please…let me help," he begged and she smiled slightly.

"You really can't shut up, you know?" she tried not to laugh. Her eyes were rimmed in red and the trails of her tears still fresh on her face, but she was whole and here.

He thumbed her tears away and swept back an errant hair from her face, "Guess you win," he offered, "again." She almost laughed at him and he leaned close and kissed her tenderly. "I'm sorry he hurt you," he offered.

"Me too," she told him. "Promise me you won't?" she asked, regretting the words the instant they left her lips. Dani didn't do _needy_ and that sounded needy even to her. She groaned at herself and whirled to get back in the car and away from what she'd just said.

Charlie let her go. Once she was inside and buckled up, he climbed in silently and buckled his own belt and then did not say another word for at least ten minutes. In fact, he scarcely moved, allowing himself to simply meditate on his breathing. It was a practical demonstration that he could in fact be very quiet for long periods of time, but when he spoke it meant something. Charlie always meant something.

Dani bit her lip in frustration beside him.

"I can hear you thinking Reese," he offered.

When she chanced a look at him, he answered her question from before, "I promise."

She said nothing further for several moments, but as they pulled to the curb at the house, she locked the doors and spoke. "Crews," she began, "I didn't mean to… I'm not that… it's just I…."

He interrupted her. "You don't want to be hurt again, betrayed again," he finished for her. She looked down, but nodded. "I know. I know how that feels too." She realized he obviously had to - after all Charlie had been through.

Then he spoke again. "If you only believe one thing that I say to you, then believe this, I will never, as long as I draw breath, hurt you or allow someone else to hurt you. Do you understand?" His look conveyed such blinding conviction it nearly pierced her heart.

She nodded mutely. He reached for his door to leave, but Dani stayed him, with her hand on his sleeve. "Crews, I will never betray you. You know that right?" she questioned him with her eyes as well as her words.

He nodded solemnly, tried the door again and asked "you gonna let me out now" when he found it still locked. She released the locks and he opened his door, but paused a moment, staying her movement with his hand on her arm and he grinned asking, "Suppose this is what they mean by dashboard confessions?"

She rolled her eyes, groaned dramatically and got out of the car. Charlie Crews was pathologically incapable of leaving a serious moment serious, he had to inject levity and make light of it. It was almost as if the weight of the moment hung on him. He delighted in shaking it off like a dog ridding itself of rainwater. It was one of those things she both loved and loathed about her partner, who now stood grinning broadly before her.

She examined the tall, lean man in his navy suit, pinstriped shirt and bright blue tie. _How can crazy people look so normal_ she wondered, but nodded her assent, finally feeling in control of her emotions for the first time that day. She realized he was really here with her, he wasn't after anything, or going anywhere, and there was very little the two of them could not manage together.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Do I have a choice?" she remarked wryly.

"Nope. Ready or not, life happens to us. We can chose to be part of it or watch it, but I don't think it's nearly as much fun as a spectator sport," he told her honestly.

"Problem is you get hurt a lot more playing than watching," she countered continuing his sports metaphor.

"Yep," the response fairly popping off his tongue.

He nudged her with his shoulder, "But you're tough, you can take it," he offered. "Besides, I'll be right there with you every step of the way." She smiled cautiously, but offered no response.

"So what's this place?" he asked, gazing at the quiet residence before them. It was a plain yellow house with brown shutters. There was a silver Cadillac parked in the drive, which made Charlie do a double take. His memory fired, but he couldn't quite place from where he knew the car.

"My parent's house." Dani delivered what she knew would be a shock to him and watched as he visibly paled. "Relax, my mom will love you," she offered with a wicked grin.

His color returned quickly, as he considered the big step she was taking, including him in telling her mother the good news of her father's return. He smiled, taking her hand. Dani looked down as he wove his fingers through hers and her look implied it was a questionable action.

"What? Your father didn't kill me, I figure your mom will be an easier sell." He grinned broadly. "Besides, I've been told I'm a very likeable guy," he hammed it up, "handsome, well mannered and this is a very nice suit." Dani just rolled her eyes, prompting him to quickly pull her close and lean down to kiss her soundly. They broke as she pushed away breathless.

"You just don't know when to quit do you?" She offered in light warning.

"If I quit when things got tough or scary, we'd have never met." He responded honestly with a gentle smile, "I'd have died years ago. So let's go meet your mom."

Their equilibrium restored they entered her parents house as a team, a couple, a pair, but as one in purpose and direction. The task ahead would bring relief to Dani's mother; relief first, but anger would follow. Charlie had the fleeting thought that he always assumed Dani's temperament more closely resembled her father's. He was about to learn, just how wrong he could be.


	10. Chapter 10 Dark Eyes & Hot Tears

**Dark Eyes and Hot Tears**

Charlie sat, somewhat ill at ease, on the Reese family couch watching mother and daughter talking in subdued tones at the kitchen table. The resemblance very evident in their mirrored features and gestures. Mrs Reese, or Roya as she insisted he call her, was a gracious and quiet woman with a visible inner strength, a strength his partner shared. Any woman who could stay married to Jack Reese for thirty years had to be tough and resilient.

He could tell the exact moment Dani told her mother Jack was safe, although he could not hear the words nor could he have understood the language even if their conversation was audible. Dani held her mother's hand, stood up and hugged her. Dani's smile for her mother was one that Charlie had never seen from his partner. It was a little girl's smile; a smile of wonder and love that had everything to do with family, genuine affection and comfort. It fascinated him and it dawned on him that it was very like the one on the little dark haired girl in his dream.

Now and then he caught snippets of their quiet conversation. Occasionally Roya's eyes would stray over Dani's shoulder and lock onto him. In those moments when Roya Reese cast her dark eyes his way, he could see the questions in them. _Who was this man who came into her home holding her daughter's hand? What did that mean for Dani who was such a guarded person?_

Dani's mother's eyes wore traditional Persian coal liner that accentuated her long lashes and emphasized the darkness Charlie already knew a man could drown in. In them he sensed intelligence and great devotion, but also cautiousness and gravitas. She would not be won over with a winsome smile and jokes; this was a serious woman on whom he needed to make a profound and solid impression.

It was also clear the women were close. Closeness was something he did not sense between Dani and her father. Concern yes, affection possibly…from Dani towards her father, but closeness – no. Yet both women were clearly concerned about the grim, mean old man. _Why do women love us even when we don't deserve it_ – he thought, as Dani rose from the table. He watched as she turned her back on her mother, flipped open her cell phone and disappeared from his view.

Roya was clearly accustomed to her daughter's work behaviors because she did not give her so much as an annoyed glance. Instead the woman took the opportunity to focus her undivided attention on the lanky red haired man sitting in her living room. Charlie felt a bit like an animal being inspected at the State Fair. He firmly held her eyes and smiled one of his lower wattage grins. She did not return his smile, but her eyes widened slightly, intimating some sort of effect - whether for good or ill he could not tell.

Dani snapped the phone shut and announced they had to go, but excused herself to use the restroom before they left. It was then that Roya rose from her kitchen table and entered the living room. He began to rise as she approached and she warned him off in much the same way Dani would with a slight shake of her head, "Don't get up, please."

"Forgive me, Mr. Crews, in my excitement over the news of my husband, I failed to even offer you something to drink," she demurred. She was an intelligent and guarded woman, much like his partner he realized. Roya held her cards very close to the vest.

"I'm fine, just happy for you both," he offered. She cocked her head to the side, like Dani would, skeptically, as if to say, "_are you now?"_

"I'm wondering," she began as he sank back into the couch, "what are you to my daughter Mr. Crews?"

_So Dani's timing and go for throat interrogation style also came courtesy of her mother,_ Charlie thought. She'd let him relax slightly and then asked a direct question to unbalance him. But Charlie Crews hadn't survived twelve years inside by showing fear to an opponent and that's what she was right now. Assessing him, prodding him, probing him for weaknesses and intentions, protecting her daughter - the only family she had left.

He sat forward on the couch, leaned slightly over his knees and lowered his voice so that what he said was just between them. "I'm Dani's partner, but you already know that." He paused for just a moment waiting for her eyes to return to his, "And I'm the man who's going to marry your daughter," he said with a twinkle in his eye and a confident air. "But she's not ready for that yet, so let's just keep that between us, okay?" he finished with a wink.

Dani's mother snorted a short laugh at his display of confidence just as her daughter emerged from the bathroom, prompting Dani to look hard at her partner with raised inquisitive brows. He smiled enigmatically, shook his head and shrugged.

"We got a call," Dani announced to the group at large, intending to hurry their departure. Roya hugged Dani tightly and held her for a moment, whispering in her ear before releasing her. Dani smiled a small, but true smile for her mother and turned to join her partner who remained seated on the couch.

The look she gave him was one that seemed to intimate she was deciding something that affected both their futures at that very instant. She walked to him and put her hand into his and pulled him into a standing position from the couch. She had barely introduced him on arrival, being too concerned about her mother, now she took her time.

"Mom, this is Charlie Crews. He's my…." She stopped and considered him, them, again and reassessed.

"Your what?" her mother inquired with a smile behind her own dark eyes.

For a moment he was worried, then she smiled; his smile, the one she showed to no one else. "That's it…. just mine," Dani said.

"Well, it is indeed an honor to meet a man in whom my daughter places her trust," Roya said, with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Her look said '_Hurt my child and you'll die a slow and painful death, I don't care who you are'. _ Charlie saw the grittiness of Jack Reese in his small, slight wife. She was certainly no pushover.

"I'm sure we'll meet again 'inshallah'," Charlie said, returning his own tight grin. He hoped his look conveyed _'I'm not afraid of you and no one is going to warn me off this woman'_, as he pointedly put his arm around Dani and steered her toward the door.

It began to rain as they left, but nothing could dampen his spirits on this day. Dani Reese had just proclaimed him "hers" and her laying claim to him was not something Charlie expected. Most of their early relationship was a bit one sided; she was there but watchful, not quite trusting him as he trusted her. But their trial period was over, she'd decided he was a "keeper" and it made him immensely happy to be hers.

Roya stood at the window watching them leave. She noticed that her daughter neither shrugged off nor offered any objection to Charlie Crews' show of protectiveness and ownership. It was intriguing that her usually restrained and cautious child allowed this man to treat her in such a way. Not that anything the tall man had done was inappropriate for a suitor, Roya was simply acknowledging what a big step it was for Dani.

Crews' confidence was not overplayed, Dani was quite serious about him and she had not been serious about a man in a very long time. Roya recalled the painful time after her last disastrous love affair, since when her daughter seemed determined to never become attached to anyone or anything ever again. And yet, here, with this man, she willingly gave up some measure of control.

Dani brought him with her to talk about the return of Jack Reese. This spoke of trust, something Roya was not sure her daughter had in anyone anymore. Charlie Crews was a determined man and not afraid - it appeared - of anyone or anything.

Roya knew it had been Crews who wrested her daughter away from Roman Nevikov, although Dani rarely spoke of it and his commitment to Dani was strong. But she sensed something deeper in the tall, red haired man with the bright smile and pale skin. He was dangerous she feared. There was something taut about his manner, his actions were fluid, but underneath something dark lurked and Roya knew about darkness in men from her absent husband.

As she watched them walk to their car, Roya's thoughts returned to Jack Reese, long gone but never forgotten and never truly given up for dead. The fury she felt was contained until her daughter left and it was then she began to cry hot tears. She was elated he was alive, but her eyes narrowed as she thought of how much she would make him pay when he came home.

* * *

"What did you do?" Dani asked, as soon as the front door shut behind them.

Charlie gave her his best '_who me'_ look.

"And since when do you speak Farsi?" Dani questioned.

"Lot of Muslims in the prison system," he offered, grinning. "Can't help but pick up a few things here and there." Dani continued to eye him suspiciously.

"Hey," he tipped his chin up at her over the roof of their car, "what'd she say about me?"

It was Dani's turn to grin, which turned slightly fiendish as she replied. "She told me to watch out. Said Irishmen are nothing but trouble." Making specific reference to Jack Reese and Crews.

"It's the hair," he offered in his own defense as he sunk into the passenger seat. "I'm not Irish, it's Welsh or English, but definitely not Irish."

"Yes, it's the hair, but you…." Dani smiled, "are trouble in any language."

Her hand strayed across the divide to lightly stroke his. He turned his palm over and watched as she flattened her palm against his and wove her fingers through his. He closed his hand squeezing their link lightly, before relaxing and releasing her to drive. He recognized the uniqueness of her gesture, Dani had reached out to him and it had nothing to do with sex. Her gesture was intimate; it evidenced their ever-deepening connection. Her trust in him remained unshaken. This was just physical proof their link, which grew ever more fixed and definite. Things were changing, Charlie realized and he was watching it happen.

Perhaps it would not take as long as he thought for his partner to arrive at the conclusion he already had – they belonged together. Then what he promised her mother would become real as he hoped.

"So, what's the call?" he said effectively changing the subject and taking them out of this moment and into the next, as slow, fat raindrops began to fall across the city and the both the sky and their day darkened.


	11. Chapter 11 Downpour

**Downpour**

Normally when it rained in the City of Angels, it was a gentle, soft rain that rinsed the smog from the sky, removed layers of dust from the buildings and cars making everything appear shiny, clean and new. It was generally just enough of the wet stuff to coat the streets and sidewalks of Tinsel Town in reflective surfaces and made all the lights appear twice as vibrant. It was a pretty time and people tolerated it well.

Today however was anything but normal. This day's rain made one think Noah should have been building an ark in the hills surrounding Los Angeles and gathering animals two by two. Naturally, Crews and Reese drew an outdoor crime scene on a day so wet it made their notebook pages curl on the dashboard before they'd ever even thought about exiting their unmarked into the elements.

The ride over had been hellish, between Reese's maniacal driving and generally bad traffic, Charlie was still peeling his fingers off the dash as the rain beat down on the windshield in steady sheets.

"Mind telling me why we had to make this into 'Mr. Toad's Wild Ride'?" he inquired sarcastically.

"Forensics, Crews," his partner smarted back. "Our evidence is literally washing away," she said grimly, "now quit stalling, come on." She slammed the car door and walked stiffly through the pouring rain. Her mood was a dark as the sky. Reese hated being wet like a cat hated a bath.

Charlie sighed heavily and realized Ted was right when he told them this morning 'the Weather Channel was predicting rain'. Charlie didn't own a raincoat. _Who needed a raincoat in LA anyway?_

He steeled himself against what he knew would be the cold bite of hard, heavy rain drops and climbed from the car. He stood, face raised to the sky, accepting the moment and allowing the rain to get every inch of him wet and then dashed after his partner, making loud splashes in every puddle he could find.

He arrived to find Bobby Stark and his partner Juarez holding an LAPD yellow slicker between them over the body. Juarez was still wearing his yellow rain gear, making Charlie realize Bobby lost the toss.

"Still losing coin tosses eh, Bobby?" he joked with his usually affable former partner.

Stark wiped sheets of rainwater from his face and smiled grimly at Crews. "Some things never change, Charlie," he said still chipper despite the soggy surroundings.

"Where's CSI?" Reese asked annoyed.

"Dumb luck, they were in an accident five blocks over. A photographer did a drive by on foot; said the team would be here as soon as they cleared the accident. She ran over, snapped a few photos and had to get back. I guess the whole thing is a wash. Get it?… A wash," he rolled his eyes, Charlie grinned in response to his lame joke, but Reese scowled, unnerving Stark who continued to stammer at them.

"So, yeah… she scampered over here, like I said shot a few photos and bailed. Apparently, water doesn't agree with the fur on lab rats," he groused and pulled at his wet navy uniform shirt. "Us uni's we can get soaked to the skin and just keep grinding it out, although if I had a cup of coffee right now, I'd soak my fingers in it," Stark admitted, his bravado slipping away fast.

Dani gathered her wet hair over her right shoulder, ran her fingers through it a couple times to straighten it, wrung the water from it, then produced a rubber band from her jacket pocket and tied her hair in a tight, neat, pony tail. His partner was so efficient at times it amazed Charlie.

"ID?" she questioned. Both Stark and Juarez shrugged.

She approached the body gloving up, careful not to get any of her hair or fibers on the woman's remains. "Coroner on the way?" she called over her shoulder to the patrol officers.

"Stuck in traffic," Juarez told her unhappily. They could not leave until released by the Detectives or the coroner and that meant they'd be standing in the driving rain for the foreseeable future.

Reese did not look up, but Charlie knew her look was ominous from her silence. He also predicted her mood would progressively worsen as he watched the rain course down her neck, under her collar and he saw he shiver as the cold rainwater ran down her back, wetting her shirt, probably the only dry spot on the four of them at this point.

"Maybe we should…" he started, but her dark look shut him up instantly.

He crouched beside her and studied the woman on the pavement. She was laid out as though she was sleeping in the middle of a pathway in the midst of what was a normally busy park. Her arms were folded carefully across her stomach, like a fairy tale princess waiting to be awakened by love's first kiss.

"She's displayed, placed and posed. He wanted us to find her. If she was sexually assaulted, it was somewhere else; she was redressed and dumped here." Reese pronounced in short, clipped, dispassionate sentences. She had shut the world out entirely and was just working the case.

For Reese now, the rain did not exist, the city was gone; all she saw was the dead woman lying before them. In that way, she was very capable of blocking all other sensory input and seeing only the crime, the victim and sometimes glimpses of the criminal they had yet to catch.

There were days when Charlie forgot what a good cop Dani Reese was and it took something like this to remind him. She was singularly focused, driven and tenacious as a bulldog. He loved all those things about her. What he did not love was her stubborn streak and her steadfast refusal to let him protect her from anything from the elements to bad guys to ex-boyfriends. He recalled her terseness as she told him in no uncertain terms she'd deal with Tidwell on her own, in a time and place of her choosing and he was not to interfere. It made him want to bite his own teeth.

"No purse," she stated the obvious and patted the woman's pockets. "No noticeable ID on her, no wedding ring, no watch, no earrings or jewelry," she continued.

"But this wasn't a mugging," he offered. "Maybe he kept her personal effects to prevent ID," he continued.

"Then why leave her here," she gestured around them, "in the open? In a city park? No, he wanted her found. Found and identified." She was certain. And when Reese spoke with certainty, you could bet she was right.

"Souvenirs?" he questioned. She tilted her head considering the possibility and then shrugged, unsure of that part. He removed a pen from his shirt and used it to drag the woman's blonde hair from her throat. "There are hand prints on her neck consistent with manual strangulation," he offered.

Dani looked at him, her eyes narrowed and then she started, "Then why are her eyes…." but didn't finish, instead whirling and shouting at Stark. "Did you touch her?"

"What? No." he answered a little too quickly and a little too sharply. Charlie exhaled audibly and Dani arched her eyebrows and stared hard at the man.

"Okay, I just closed her eyes. That open eyed staring thing freaks me out and the rain was just… you know, so I closed them," he confessed. Dani turned back to Crews who looked as chagrined as Stark.

"It is a little freaky to some people," he said softly in explanation. An excuse for his old partner to his new one, one she did not fully accept, but chose not to make an issue of.

Instead she reached to the woman's face and lifted her eyelids and there in the conjunctiva were tiny red blossoms, little flowers of blood in the white of her eyes.

"Petechial hemorrhages," she voiced, giving name to what they both saw. Tiny red explosions of burst blood vessels in the eyes, when subjected to extreme pressure were the hallmarks of manual strangulation.

"To strangle someone with your bare hands, that's personal," Charlie stated the obvious, but it had to be said. They were thinking aloud now following the same stream of consciousness and putting together a rough theory. It was what they did and they did it incredibly well. "It's some one she knows," he offered.

"Or someone who knew her," she finished. "Watched, observed, wanted, but could not have. Maybe…" she theorized. "Either way it was personal for both of them and deadly for one."

"It takes a lot of strength to choke someone out," Charlie summarized from personal experience. "And time."

"This is a dump site. The murder was somewhere else." Reese pronounced the surety of her voice comforting in the cold, wet, dreary day.

"Gimme a bag," she demanded and Charlie pulled a packet of several different sized plastic bags from his jacket. "Now gimme your knife," she ordered. He gave her a quizzical look, but produced the wicked shiny four-inch stainless steel blade from his belt, flicked it open with his thumb and offered it to her handle first.

She smiled wryly at him, "Relax I'm giving it back."

She efficiently and economically, split the bag along the seams to create a single long sheet of plastic and gentle wrapped it around the woman's neck to protect any evidence left there by the offender. His partner was a clever woman and Charlie followed her lead placing bags over the woman's hands to protect any trace under her nails.

Reese stood, stripped off her gloves and pocketed them. She folded his knife and handed it back to him; as their hands made contact, hers felt cold to him, clammy, like the dead girl's would. He realized that Reese was far more affected by the elements than he; her lighter frame and significantly less body weight meant while he was chilly, she was cold and heading towards hypothermia if they didn't get out of this rain and into dry clothes soon.

"Stay here," she told Juarez and Stark. "Wait for the coroner and tell them what we did," Stark nodded solemnly, embarrassed he'd contaminated their scene. Charlie knew the man would make up for it by staying with the body through earthquake, fire or flood.

Reese was headed away from the body and further into the park, when he grasped her elbow. "Where are we going?" Charlie asked her carefully, but gently.

"She's missing a shoe, Crews," she pointed back to the woman. "Her clothing is perfect except the missing shoe, maybe he lost it placing her here, it could be the only clue to where he came from and where he went," she explained her teeth beginning to chatter slightly. He noticed it, but she shook it off.

"But you're…" he began to voice his concern.

"Fine. I'm fine," she said scowling at him. She simply wouldn't abide his protective streak when it came to work. Fighting with her would be useless, he'd only piss her off and still lose, he realized as he hurried to keep up with his smaller partner.

The rain was a bit lighter in the shelter of the trees, but the mud made footing slick and treacherous. More than once they nearly went down either individually or together. Then a rare bright flash of lightning lit the pewter sky and a deafening clap of thunder split the sky.

"That's enough," he announced authority clear in his tone. "We're leaving. Now, Reese. CSI should be here by now. They can finish the sweep beyond the scene." She glared at him, but he reached for her hand and closed it tightly in his larger, warm palm and she nodded slightly. He led them from the woods to the paved the path and back towards their car.

"Crews," she called out to him though the steadily worsening shower, "can I have my hand back?" He tugged harder on her and pulled her closer to his body.

"No," he told her using his body to shield her as the wind whipped the rain sideways and the rain began to slant down violently. He looked at her soaked to the skin, hair plastered against her head and every ounce of makeup washed from her features and realized how truly striking she was just like this.

What he was thinking must have showed, because as he watched her standing alee from the storm in the void created by his shoulders and back, her dark eyes considered him seriously for a moment before a curious little smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

"Let's go, Charlie," she told him, "let's go home and get warm."


	12. Chapter 12 Warm & Dry

**Warm and Dry and Missing a Shoe**

They climbed into their unmarked in their traditional positions with Reese in the driver's seat and Charlie riding shotgun. She turned the engine over and cranked the heat up, but found she could not stop shivering enough to drive. Charlie reached across the divide to grasp her small, cold hand in his. "You're freezing," he said, stating the obvious while taking in Dani's bluish lips and chattering teeth.

She shot him a look that said "duh" and shivered in response. Gradually, the windows began to fog from the temperature imbalance, but it was like waiting for it to get dark at night; the more you wanted it, the longer it took. Charlie twice reached for his door, intending to go around and drive, before deciding that was a bad idea.

Finally, he settled for "come're" and opened his arms. Dani bit her lip to prevent her teeth from chattering, but even that did not return the color to them. She wavered for an instant and then decided his open arms and warmth were too inviting to pass up, but first she pressed the door lock button.

"No way Stark is catching us in here," she commented darkly as she climbed into his lap. "I'd never hear the end of that," she stammered still freezing.

"Yeah, well in the three years we partnered together I never once was tempted to do this to him," Charlie breathed across her lips before locking her in searing kiss. His hands stripped her jacket from her shoulders, but he could not get it entirely off her arms and the result was like putting her in a straitjacket.

She could not return his embrace and it frustrated her to no end. Her frustration came across as a throaty growl, which Charlie swallowed as he kissed her with more abandoned. _If he could drive her wild, they'd both warm up_ he thought. He abandoned her lips to plant a trail of hot kisses down her neck and began to unbutton her shirt.

"Crews," she barked, "a little help" she gestured at her jacket. He smiled devilishly and shook his head no. "You bastard," she swore softly at him and watched as he smiled again and reclined her for better access to her now exposed breast. He was determined to heat her up and drive her mad in the interim.

Dani groaned and was rewarded as she felt him harden against her. She moved against his lap and Charlie moaned a purely guttural response. "That's a wicked little move there, sweetheart," his unintentionally deeper response rumbled in her ear.

He was everywhere. Suddenly Dani was no longer cold, she was burning up and he was the fire. He pushed her bra aside and laved her tender exposed taut nipple. His warm breath and kisses trailed up her chest and neck as he rose to whisper more tantalizing things in her ear.

"You want me to help you out of your predicament Detective, I'm going to need a simple promise from you," he toyed with her.

"What?" she hissed in frustration.

"Tsk, tsk," he chided, "so much anger," he smiled against her neck even as he began to unroll the bunched leather that trapped her arms gently. "You have to promise…" he continued, "promise that when I free you from this mess you've gotten yourself into…"

She interrupted, "I got myself into," incredulity in her tone.

He paused and she continued to struggle, "Dani. Be still," he sensed her becoming desperate to put her hands on him. "I'll get you out of that jacket, but you have to promise to climb in that backseat and make out with me for a good ten minutes."

He could have sworn she giggled. "Make out, hell. You better be very flexible Crews, because those pants are coming off," she warned.

About that time, Stark hit the siren as he and Juarez cleared the scene. Dani's hands now free were wound behind Charlie's neck and she dropped her head onto his shoulders. "He knows doesn't he?" she groaned.

"When you were on patrol and the windows looked like this in a car, what did you think the people inside were doing?" he asked her honestly.

"Fucking," she groaned. "I knew they were…"

"Stark is just being a cop," he smiled brightly.

"Your friend Stark is a mood killer," she sat back on the driver's side and Charlie felt cold again right away, "and so's his siren," she sounded disappointed.

"Yeah," Charlie sighed. "But… we still need dry clothes," he offered, waggling his eyebrows at her. "We could go back to the station and change in the locker room or…" He left the decision to her.

"My place is closer," she said putting the car in gear. "Make yourself useful and wipe down that windshield – I can't see a thing," she ordered.

"I don't have dry clothes at your place," he pointed out.

"And this is my problem how Crews?" she joked.

She was going to be the death of him, he was sure. _But what a way to die,_ he thought as he ran a hand through his soaking wet scalp and flicked the rain water from his hand at her. Her laughter sounded to him like the magically light patter of raindrops on the surface of a still lake.


	13. Chapter 13 The Red Man

**The Red Man**

The next morning, with very little from forensics and a call from the coroner saying not to expect a silver bullet from him; the prospect of solving their case was indeed looking bleak. They'd been over the photos, if you could call them that, twice. Reese groused loudly that she was lodging an official complaint with the Crime Scenes Sergeant. "Unless allergic to rain is on their medical records someone should lose their credentials for this shit," the dour detective said, dejectedly tossing the prints on to Crews desk.

He looked at what appeared to be modern art; dark dreary images shot in the rain with foggy condensation obscuring much of the detail. It was like looking at the scene through a steamy shower door, you could make out shapes and colors, but the edges were gone.

"Well, this is just fuckin' great," Dani remarked again, in a decidedly bad mood. "Forensic bails so their makeup doesn't run and we get finger paintings instead of photos."

"One inch ahead is all darkness," Charlie remarked in a good mood with the reemergence of the sun and warmth.

Dani just glared and huffed at him, her disgust and disappointment palpable.

"One inch ahead everything is dark. What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" She questioned, slumping in her chair and staring at him for an explanation.

"The photos weren't going to solve this case for us anyway," he said simply. "You're just mad, the photos don't really mean anything. They are just a convenient target for your anger," he told her patiently.

"Okay, Kung-Fu," she joked darkly, "who am I mad at?"

"That's the right question, Dani," Charlie spoke in a low tone, only for her ears, while holding her eyes. "Who are you angry with?"

She chewed the side of lip thoughtfully then shrugged. "The bad guy I guess," she said, her tone unsure and tenuous. Charlie continued to stare at her waiting for her to turn her examination inward and look harder.

After a moment he continued, with more Zen. "In your heart, you already know". He spoke to her with hope that his words would connect to her heart and she would see that her anger came from within – always Dani's anger was within. This time however she could not see. She looked at him through the same fog that obscured the photos.

"That's a bunch of crap, Charlie," she replied quietly, accepting that she did not see what he was trying to show her and still unexplainably angry and stuck.

Charlie was about to explain the Buddhist concept of "duhka" and Reese was in the midst of proclaiming once again they had zero chance of solving the case, but now with a bemused smirk on her face, when her desk phone trilled loudly interrupting them both.

"Reese" she barked into the receiver after snatching the little plastic handset from its cradle. "Uh-huh. Oh, really…" she said dryly, while rolling her eyes. She hung the phone up and seemed to consider the call, as a tiny smile twisted at the corner of her mouth.

"Care to share?" Charlie inquired, as he wondered at her wistful smile.

"Seems we caught a break," she said cautiously optimistic. "A walk in witness," she continued, "that almost never happens."

"Maybe today's our lucky day," he offered her a small grin of his own.

"Maybe….maybe…" she repeated under her breath and looked toward the elevator as it halted, bells heralding its arrival and the doors opened.

What emerged from the elevator was not Dani's definition of 'lucky'. It was a slight looking blonde woman of about twenty-five, with an innocent expression making her appear much younger. She was somewhat waifish and emerged into the busy squad room looking lost and holding the hand of a small boy with dark unruly curls.

"Great…kids," Dani muttered.

"Not kids, kid – just one," Charlie smiled at her dislike of children, "he looks harmless. Don't worry, I'll keep him busy while you to talk to her," he offered with a wink and then a slight wave at the boy, who shyly returned his gesture.

The woman towed the little boy with her through the sea of desks, like a tugboat hauling a larger, heavier ship – determined but outmatched. The boy seemed intent on the many distractions within reach; ringing phones, pencils, staplers – all just nearly within his grasp. Just as he'd edge close to something, the woman tugged him along and his little eyes flicked to another closer possible toy. They reached Dani and Charlie before the boy could actually latch onto anything.

"Uh, hi, I'm Ashley," she introduced herself. "This is Dax. Say hello to the policemen Dax," the woman instructed. Dax said nothing, but managed a small grin, showing off a row of baby teeth with gaps between them. By the amount of teeth still present, Dani guessed his age to be four or five, but certainly less than seven as he hadn't lost either of his front teeth yet.

"Detectives Reese and Crews," Dani formally introduced them both gesturing at Crews when she got to his name. Charlie smiled at the girl. She ran her eyes up and down the tall Detective noting his bare left hand, smiled back and batted her eyelashes coquettishly. Dani felt a twinge of what she had to attribute to jealousy, until she noticed Charlie attention was primarily focused on the boy. He hardly paid the woman a moment's notice. For some inexplicable reason, Crews' lack of reaction to the obviously interested girl both amused and concerned Dani.

"We can have someone watch your son while we talk," she offered. "The officer from downstairs said you saw something in the park yesterday…" Dani was eager to get at whatever the woman knew, without the distraction of the boy.

"Oh… " Ashley blushed, "I didn't see him. Dax did." She giggled at Dani's misconception, sliding her glance to Charlie who was fixated on her son and then began to explain. Charlie nodded but did not look up and handed the boy a rubber band from his desk.

"I was packing up to leave before the rain started to come down really hard and that's when Dax saw him. He tried to tell me, but I thought he was… well, it was just gibberish… then I saw in the paper this morning how they found that woman. I think Dax saw who brought her to the park."

There was a long uncomfortable pause during which no one said anything and Dax tried unsuccessfully to reach Charlie's stapler. Then Ashley offered again "I would have come in yesterday, but I thought he was just talking foolishness. You know how kids sometimes say things?" she questioned Dani with her eyes.

Dani began to shake her head no, but Charlie spoke for them both. "Sure we do. Kids sometimes say things," leaving Dani no recourse but to tacitly agree while she silently hoped Crews was as good with kids as he thought he was.

"Hey. Dax." Charlie bent down to talk with the boy. "Wanna see the cool room where we lock up the bad men?" The boy nodded eagerly and put his plump little hand into Charlie's.

Dani pointed to Interrogation 3 and spoke as an aside to Ashley, "I'll show you to an area where you can watch him on closed circuit television." She seemed a tiny bit hesitant to let Crews lead her son away, but Dani placated the woman, "He's very good with kids, loves them. Dax will be perfectly safe. We'll stop if he gets scared or upset."

"Dax doesn't get scared or upset," the woman said forlornly. Unsure of what the proper response to a comment like that was, Dani settled for nothing and left her in the dark watching the black and white video monitors and joined Charlie in interrogation.

For the first four minutes of the tour which covered the welded shackled spot and a demonstration of Charlie's handcuffs, Dax was content; then he looked around the room and wondered aloud, "Where's mommy?"

Charlie looked perplexed as if the idea of explaining that part hadn't occurred to him. "Uh, well, she's here. She's just not here in this room. But she's close." Dax appeared skeptical and clearly Zen did not work on five year olds.

Dani sat very still in the chair opposite where the perp usually sat, while Crews tried to extricate himself from the predicament, somewhat amused. Her face wore a familiar smirk as she watched his brain work overtime when suddenly Dax convinced Charlie did not know, simply dropped his hand, walked to Dani and climbed into her lap.

"Where's my mommy?" he asked her at once solemn and green eyes open wide.

"It's okay, honey. See that camera there in the corner? She's watching you on TV while we talk to you about what you saw in the park. Can you tell us about that?" she talked easily with the boy.

Charlie relaxed and watched her interact with Dax. She didn't engage in "baby talk" or other dramatic overacting like some folks did with children. Some people thought you could make up for misunderstanding with exaggerated gestures or louder vocalizations. He'd seen patrol officers do it on the road and it never worked with kids or people who didn't speak English.

Dani was just the opposite, she talked almost in a conspiratorial tone, as if she and Dax were the only ones who knew. She made direct eye contact and asked probing questions, watching him for non-verbal reactions as well as listening to his answers. She asked his age, challenged him to say his ABC's and count to ten. She asked if him he understood the difference between a lie and the truth. She also tolerated the boy running his hands through her hair and playing with her necklace while he spoke. Charlie found the entire event fascinating.

He had to admit that while generally he handled the "kid" part of their cases; his partner was very good with children. Dani was uniquely herself with kids. She was interacting with another person – someone smaller but no less intelligent or observant. It was a side of her he'd never noticed before, but one he liked. He felt outside their moment, until he found himself imagining Dani reading a story to their own little girl, the one from his dream. That caused a dreamy smile to cross his features and Reese who was simultaneously watching him frowned. She was so good at multi-tasking he realized.

Dax animatedly explained he had been building a fort with his friend, David, in the woods, to hide from pirates, using a blue blanket, when it began to rain. He asked Dani if she's seen the Pirate movies and when she nodded this pleased Dax. He asked if Dani liked pirates and she blushed and said yes, gaining her a sly smile from the boy. He continued his tale with a knowing look at Dani and explained how David's mother made him leave right away, but his mother was still cleaning up when he saw the man.

"What made you notice this man? What was special about him?" Dani asked.

"He was carrying a great big Barbie," Dax explained smiling. Dani nodded understanding immediately that he was describing the dead woman in full rigor; her stiffness making her appear doll-like. She gave nothing away that would intimate a reaction to Dax's disclosure.

"Can you tell me what he looked like?" she asked expectantly. If she was hoping for a height, weight, age, hair and eye color description - what she got was anything but.

"It was a red man," Dax stated flatly. Charlie and Dani both wore quizzical looks, but despite a few more minutes of the same question posed in a variety of ways, all they ever got from Dax was "it was a red man." Then he climbed down from Dani's lap and proclaimed he was hungry. Charlie produced an apple from his pocket, eliciting a fierce scowl from the boy, which made Dani snicker.

"Guess this interview is over, unless you got a Popsicle in your pocket," she kidded her partner.

Charlie turned to Dax to revisit one more detail. "Dax," he queried gently, "did the woman, the Barbie, have both of her shoes when you saw her?" Dax grinned.

"Nope," he popped in response, "the red man dropped it in the park," he then winked at Dani and whispered, "but I can show you where. It was near the buried treasure."

* * *

They rejoined Ashley outside the interview room. As they handed Dax off to her, she pointedly tried to attract Charlie's attention. Dani watched intently as her partner interacted with the woman, smiling blandly he seemed entirely disconnected from the event. He most certainly was not interested in Ashley's interest in him and Dani was secretly pleased at this fact.

"When Dax says 'red man' does he mean an Indian?" Charlie asked his mother.

"No Dax knows who Indians are," she said surely.

"From playing?" Charlie inquired.

"Playing what?" Ashely wondered perplexed. "No, from the store," she replied still clearly confused. "Dax, tell the Detective what an Indian looks like," she instructed.

"Brown man with a red dot – here," he stated flatly, point at his forehead.

Dani and Charlie linked eyes and concluded the rudimentary description Dax gave was of a Hindi. Charlie then tried quizzing Dax on his colors and as it turned out red was pretty much what the boy used to describe everything from pink to orange to purple without much distinction.

"He's not dumb," his mother offered, "most men don't know their colors. I mean look at how they dress," she motioned toward Detective Spignetti who was seated two desks over and was having a bit of fashion trouble with his ensemble that day.

"Not you Detective Crews," Ashley smiled brightly, "but most men," she offered.

"Yes, Detective Crews will be featured on the cover of GQ next month," Dani teased, "LAPD's Best Dressed Detectives issue," she deadpanned. Ashley seemed impressed and Charlie just smiled weakly.

"Thanks for your help Ashley," Dani said shaking the woman's hand and then she leaned down and offered her thanks to Dax also, who impulsively hugged her surprising everyone. "Thanks Dax."

"Thanks for not taking me to jail," the boy offered with a little grin, "us pirates have to be careful." His impish smile and curly locks getting the better of the usually all business Detective Reese.

"Yeah, well…he's the one you have to watch out for," she gestured at Crews and they shared a laugh at Charlie's expense.

"Could you show our friends out?" she smiled slyly at Crews.

When Charlie returned from putting the young family on the elevator, Dani was chewing thoughtfully on a pencil at her desk. "So, wanna tell me what that was about?" he inquired.

"What?" she said innocently.

"Oh, you don't think I noticed, but I noticed. The look you gave that girl and then you send me out there with her? What was that about?" Charlie probed.

"I… did not… there was no look," she defended, "you're imagining things."

"Uh-huh," he nodded placating her. "So you didn't just have a moment? Lemme tell you something," his tone low and rumbling in his chest as he stepped into her personal space. "Since we've been together I don't see other women that way, I don't look - because I like what I have here," as he intimated their connection with a back and forth gesture of his finger. "Other women might just as well not exist for me, you are all I want," his voice turned even more velvety.

"Ok, see now, cut that out at work," she responded putting her hand in the middle of his chest intent on pushing him away. But the moment her hand made contact with his chest, he covered it with his own and she could feel his heart leaping to meet her. His intense blue eyes sparkled with mischief. "Are you touching me?" he spoke to her in a low, unintentionally sexy almost whisper.

"Charlie, stop it," she cautioned, breathless from his mere presence. He dropped his hand and stepped back, but their eyes remained locked in their own moment. "Okay, I was… a little," she confessed obliquely.

"Don't be," he murmured.

"What?" she wondered, regaining her poise. Damn him, he was like kryptonite to her, making her weak for no reason with just that look of his, and his voice low and guarded building intimacy into the most public of places.

"Don't be sorry," he rumbled. "When another man looks at you, sometimes I want to kill them," he offered. "Not all the time, but sometimes. I want you to be mine," he confessed.

"Let's go, I need some air," she said grabbed her jacket, moving past him. Just as they were the closest, she murmured under her breath, "I am yours, you idiot."

"Good, cause I thought I was gonna have to peel that kid off you. What was with all that winking and pirate stuff anyway?" Dani blushed again as he continued, "I thought I might be over reacting and he's not in my weight class." He directed the comment at her interaction with the little boy with the dark curls and green eyes.

Charlie smiled broadly and followed her. He'd follow her anywhere, he thought, to the very gates of hell as he watched her hips swing down the hall in front of him. Then he caught her in two long strides. Dedicated Dani watching could derail his entire day, he realized.

They were largely silent on the walk to the lobby and outside into the bright LA sunshine. Dani bought them things from the coffee kiosk; a frothy latte flavored with orange for her and a cup of fruit for him. Charlie watched a young boy trying desperately to get his kite in the air. He was torn between wanting to help the boy and wait for Dani. One look back at her and he knew she could see the conflict within him as she gestured with her hand releasing him.

Charlie crossed the small greenbelt in few strides and pointedly displaying his Detectives' shield offered the boy help. They had the kite in the air in no time and he returned to the bench where Dani sat sipping her coffee breathless from running.

"That was nice," she remarked.

He turned to look at her expecting to find her wearing a wry grin, but instead he found her face sincere and smile warm. He was amazed by all the different looks she could give him. He found her like a diamond, stunning and sparkling from every angle, but different and unique.

"Crews? Are you okay?" she asked softly.

"No. I mean, yes. Well…sort of, yes." He settled on. That got his a twist of her brow, which meant she didn't entirely understand or buy his quandary.

They sat in companionable silence each alone with their thoughts; Dani working the case in her head and Charlie replaying Dani's comfort with Dax and her aplomb with children, a skill that fascinated and mesmerized him. He was turning over his dream in his head, wondering if he dared imagine it might actually work between them. They could be family, have a family and how that might change his life.

He sat still for a few more moments, eating his fruit in the sun and enjoying the outdoors with the woman content to sit quietly and sip her coffee. Charlie realized there were so very many things about Dani Reese he'd never really noticed before, like her capacity for silence. It was a quality most people lacked. They seemed intent on filling up the empty space with words, saying nothing but talking constantly.

He considered this at length and his own bizarre ramblings in the car and their infuriating effect on Dani, before changing the subject abruptly in his own head and refocusing on the case.

"What do you think he means 'red man'?" Charlie wondered as he chewed on a piece of honeydew. They sat side by side with a comfortable distance and the cup of fruit between them. This time there were two forks. Most of the fruit was being eaten by Charlie, but when he got to cantaloupe he'd incline the cup to his partner and she'd spear the piece of orange fruit.

"How am I supposed to know Crews? I don't speak four year old. Look,to Dax everything in this cup is red. Watermelon, red; cantaloupe, red; grape, also red, see." She was annoyed again.

"In that room today, you spoke pretty good four year old," he offered with laughter. Dani scoffed at his inference. "No, seriously," he said, laying his hand on her arm.

"Crews," she warned at the intimacy of his gesture. Charlie looked down at her and grimaced, removing his hand gingerly. They were silent a moment before he continued.

"Do you know how badly I want to slide down this bench? To put my arm around you and just be here with you?" he said softly.

"That's a bad idea," she said looking down.

"Why? As far as everyone else is concerned we're just two people in love amongst a sea of other people. They don't know us and don't care that we're not allowed to love each other," he finished with disappointment in his voice.

In that instant Dani made the choice she'd been afraid to all her life, she reached out to him. She picked up the cup and closed the distance, until their thighs were touching. It surprised him; the shock was apparent in his eyes when he looked at her, but his smile emerged quickly. He leaned back and put his arm around her pulling her gently closer to him.

She turned the plastic cup towards him. "Honeydew, that's all you,' she said offering the fruit.

"Thought you didn't like pet names?" he teased. She tried to glare at him, but failed and settled for a gentle elbow to the ribs.

"Easy now," he chuckled kissing the top of her head, "I'm gonna need this body later."

"You bet your ass you will," she grinned, "or more accurately - I will." Her look was more seductive than a city park in broad daylight was ready for and it made him want to kiss her so badly he nearly couldn't resist it. He settled for trailing his fingers lightly along her neck below the earlobe, tickling the sensitive area with a feather light trace of his fingers.

"What are you doing?" she cautioned her whole body tensing.

"Just imaging all the places I'm going to put my mouth tonight that taste better than anything in this cup," his voice was low, rough and dangerous.

He wanted to send her smoldering looks that drove her crazy. He wanted to run his hand through her hair like Dax had, just to feel the silken locks between his fingers. He wanted to kiss her senseless right there, but he didn't. He forced himself to relax, dropped his hand to the back of the bench and fixed his gaze on a couple of teenagers playing Frisbee with an athletic border collie.

"Do you think we should get a dog?" he asked with playfulness in his tone. Dani just sighed and eased. He had to be careful with her. For all her toughness, Dani Reese was intensely fragile, like spun sugar wrapped in a layer of concrete.

Small steps, he thought. Today, they were just another couple in the park on a sunny day - except that they were working a murder case.


	14. Chapter 14 Deciders of Fate

**Deciders of Fate**

Dani wanted to go back to the park. Charlie wanted to go home - and do naughty things to his junior partner. They discussed and debated the merits of dragging young Dax back to the park to search for buried treasure and Barbie's missing shoe, before they decided that solemn duty would be perfect penance for the crime scene team.

Dani took great delight in the call she placed to the CSI Sergeant explaining they could make up for their failures in the rain by combing the woods for a single item of evidence amongst all the coffee cups, condoms and coke cans that littered a public park.

"Yeah, well do it right the first time and then you won't have to go back," she barked at the man, before slamming the phone shut with relish.

"You enjoy that far too much," Charlie commented with a simple smile.

Dani smirked, and a hint of a very evil grin appeared on her face. "This gives us a little free time in our otherwise action packed day," she teased, seeming on the verge of offering a side trip to her nearby apartment.

Charlie waggled his eyebrows at her and smiled seductively, when the Detective in Dani smashed his hope of some time between the sheets with his favorite brunette.

"But…" she paused for dramatic effect, "we should probably help out with those robbery canvasses downtown."

She watched as he adjusted to her change and she regretted teasing him almost immediately. Charlie looked crestfallen and his disappointment showed plainly on his pale face, but he nimbly changed direction and headed for the parking garage.

She lagged behind, stopped in a blind spot, hiding from the surveillance cameras and leaned back against a concrete pylon before clearing her throat and beckoning him with a single finger and a sly grin. It was dark and cool here, just quiet enough for her to hear the echo of his shoes as he crossed the pavement to her.

"Was there something you wanted Detective Reese?" he questioned in a low, serious tone.

"Yes," she pointed at him, "you."

"Me?" Charlie pointed at himself, but stopped just shy of her. Dani reached out to grab his expensive silk tie and drag his lips down to hers. "Easy on the threads," he chastised withholding the kiss he knew she wanted. Two could play at this game.

She pursed her lips for just a moment as he straightened his tie and brushed off his suit. _Maybe he wasn't playing today,_ she reasoned unsure of his mood. Then Charlie seized her shoulders pinning her to the cool concrete and locked his lips to hers in a searing kiss. He deepened the kiss as she relaxed in his arms and leaned close, making contact with as much of his long lean body as he could.

Dani's hands found his slim waist and wrapped her arms around it, under his jacket, circumnavigating her way around the pistol on his hip and the cuffs concealed in the small of his back. She wanted under his shirt, but he reached back and stilled her hands.

"No," he whispered.

Her dark eyes were confused as he pulled back and kissed her forehead. "I don't know what's with me today, but if you touch me there, this - won't end here. I want…so much more time with you…more than we have here," he intimated the parking structure, the station, maybe even the city. "I wanna take you home and…"

She put her hand over his mouth, "Don't finish that or we're both going to end up in trouble," she told him, her need as great as his. "The things I'm gonna do to you tonight are gonna drive you crazy," she warned in a harsh whisper directly against his ear. She felt him shiver in anticipation and removed her hands, running them lightly down his chest before pressing a chaste simple kiss to his lips and pushing off the cold wall behind her.

"Honey, you drive me crazy just standing there," he told her honestly.

She smiled sweetly and brushed past him on her way to their unmarked, dragging her hand across his groin as she walked away. "You coming?" she asked, the double entendre intentional. Her grin was fiendish, she knew what she did to him and enjoyed it.

He growled as she walked past him, took a deep breath, willed himself calm and then hurried to catch up.

* * *

Dani answered her cell without looking at the caller ID - big mistake.

"Reese," she said, with a brightness in her tone that told the caller she was happy.

"Well…Hello Detective," Mickey Rayborn's voice came gliding to her through the phone as if he greased the airwaves. He turned her stomach with just those few words.

"Now….don't," he warned.

"Don't what?" she replied, her tone turned decidedly unsympathetic.

"Don't hang up," he laughed, "and don't tell your guard dog it's me," he continued, making reference to Charlie's fierce protective streak.

As it happened they were canvassing pawnshops on a street in a rundown quarter of the city looking for stolen goods and jewelry from a home invasion. Crews was on the north side of the street, she'd taken the south side. They were separated, but remained linked by their phones and occasional sightings as they meandered up the street leapfrogging from store to store. Sure they could do this over the phone, but storeowners tended to remember more when questioned directly and it got them out of the office and into the sunshine.

"What do you want Rayborn?" she asked him pointedly.

"After our little talk the other night, I realized I really should be talking to you, Dani." Her imagination had little trouble in providing an image of Rayborn's leer, a feature that seemed to ooze down the line.

But she said nothing so he continued. "Charlie Crews is driven and, on occasion, he's ferocious, but you my dear… you have ice water in your veins and you hold Crews' leash. If I can persuade you, you can persuade him."

"I don't have that kind of control over Crews," she shot back harshly.

"Oh, Dani. Don't be naïve." He chided. "That man misled the entire LAPD, stole weapons from the armory and killed for you…and he'd do it again in a heartbeat."

Dani considered what Rayborn said in light of Crews' escape from Nevikov as she watched her partner exit a store and search the street for her. His face and body relaxed when he saw her and he couldn't resist the impulse to wave at her and grin. Dani smiled back and ducked into the next store.

"See," Rayborn continued, "that's a man in love," making her instantly think that Rayborn was watching them. She leaned against the plate glass window and looked up and down the street, but could see no obvious surveillance. "We are always watching, Dani," he said, as the conversation became more sinister.

"Tell me something," she challenged, trying to seize back some small measure of control. "I know you helped set Crews' father up in that security gig. I know how you and my father set up those thugs to be killed so you could steal all that money from the Bank of LA." She paused for effect, letting her understanding of the depth and breadth of his misconduct sink in.

"What's your question, Detective?" Rayborn sounded less snide and more cautious.

_Not such smug bastard now are you? _she thought, but let the silence play out. Like Crews said, "people like to fill a void". She had to smile when Rayborn did just that.

"So you know a lot, Dani," he laughed, "you were always very smart. Pretty too, but never one to rely on that," he continued. "You…you always paid attention. So you know. So what? You can't prove any of that."

"Who says that's my intent?" she retorted bolder, more in control. "You think I want my father to go to jail?"

"That's a smart girl," Rayborn's confidence returned, coming through the phone like he was once again holding all the cards. "So what's your question?"

"Why send Charlie to jail? He was the only son of one of _your_ guys. He was a good cop, a good man. Why do that to him?" She laid bare her true interest, knowing she'd get no real answer, but unable to not ask the question.

_Sometimes "no answer" - is an answer,_ she thought about the Zen nature of her question. She smiled softly to herself. _Fucking Crews. You're in my head all the time now, Charlie _she thought.

"Oh, sweetie," Rayborn laughed merrily through the phone, "you really do love that boy." The way he said it made her feel ashamed.

"Do you know how I got your father to play ball all those years ago? You Dani. He did it for you. You…and your mother, but mostly for you. He loved you so much the mere inference of a threat to you was enough to keep him in line. Still is." He paused and seemed to consider if he'd share more.

"Family," he sighed. "The things we will do for the people we love. Husbands, wives, children…lovers, partners. What will Charlie Crews do to protect you? Ha! What won't he do?" His laughter resonated like a malevolent wind in her ear, long after she ended the call.

Nothing productive ever came from talking with Rayborn. She realized it was folly to even try, but for the man up the street from her, she needed to. It would take both of them to protect their fractured "family" such that it was. She thought about that idea, her parents, Crews, Ted, possibly Rachel Seybolt… was that group of deeply damaged people now her family?

Then she watched her partner emerge from another store and instantly seek a link with her. She left the store and deliberately waited for him to find her among the throng of people on the sidewalk at lunchtime. She felt herself grow more tense as she watched his smile emerge the moment he recognized her. Yes, Crews was family; he was hers and she his and family must be protected at all costs. Charlie needed protection too, protection only she could provide, but at what cost?

Charlie was dangerously unbalanced and blind to his own peril when he tried to protect her. His incredible success with Roman Nevikov taught her that. It was a miracle. He should not have survived. He didn't care if he did. He took wild risks and willingly put his life at risk for her and he'd do it again without a moment's hesitation.

It was courageous, but she didn't want that. She didn't want a dead hero buried under a flag; she wanted Crews; warm, solid and alive beside her. Surviving alone was not something she could endure, not if it came at the cost of Charlie's life. She had to find a way to convince him it was more important to survive than to sacrifice himself for her. She knew deep down that she would not, could not live without Crews – not anymore. Unfortunately, Mickey Rayborn knew it too.


	15. Chapter 15 Anniversary

**Anniversary**

It was three years since Charlie was discharged from Pelican Bay; exonerated, a free man with a badge, a substantial financial settlement and a new lease on life. It was day you would think he'd mark in some small way – as a reminder of his rebirth in the world, but he did not. In fact it passed without comment, but there was a day he intended to commemorate - the day Dani Reese came into his life.

He could still remember the first time he laid eyes on her. She was hidden behind polarized sunglasses, cloaked in a brown leather jacket. It was fall, the only time in LA you could actually get away with a jacket, but the uni's were still in short sleeves. She didn't need it.

He recognized both things for what they were immediately – armor. She wore them, her strong stiff movements and her tough talk to keep herself hidden – separate and apart from others. In prison, men wore dark tattoos that intimated their toughness. Tats were the only armor they were allowed inside. Body language, tattoos and talk were all you really had to demonstrate you were not to be toyed with, until the first time you had to dispatch someone – then word got around. It had for him, the first time he'd hurt someone in prison. But that Charlie Crews and that Dani Reese no longer existed. She was different now, they both were.

Charlie searched high and low for the perfect gift to commemorate the occasion of their partnering - which was now so much more than the word originally implied. He wanted something small, simple, but with meaning. Dani would not tolerate ostentatious gifts and she wasn't the kind of girl you bought extravagant things for, although he could think of a couple expensive things he wanted to give her.

He brushed those thoughts aside as he wandered from store to store on the street they were canvassing in a robbery case. He spoke to shopkeepers and looked thoughtfully in the jewelry cases until something spoke to him. He asked the man to show him the piece and as soon as he held it in his hand, Charlie knew he had found what he was looking for. He paid the man in cash and put the item in a small velvet bag with a drawstring and pocketed it.

Emerging on the bright street, he donned his shades and looked up and down the block for the small dark form of his partner. She emerged from a store up the block in her sunglasses and the ever-present leather jacket. Charlie smiled and waved enthusiastically. She suppressed a grin, shook her head slightly and though her eyes were hidden, he could envision the dramatic eye roll she did as she headed down the block to meet him. Some things changed, others did not.

"Hey," he said later, as they sat side by side on a park bench watching families play; kids in the playground, dogs fetching Frisbees, life generally going on. His arm was resting along the back of the bench, but it warmed in the areas it made contact with her back.

She glanced up from the Popsicle she was finishing, "what" her unspoken expression. He thumbed a small drop of lime Popsicle syrup from the corner of her mouth and then licked his thumb. She considered the intimacy of such a gesture in such a public place and concluded she really didn't care what other people thought anymore. She loved the man beside her.

"I got you something," he reached into his coat pocket.

"Why?" she asked him.

"Do I need a reason?" he waggled his eyebrows at her and produced the velvet bag, carefully untying it and pouring its contents into his palm.

She watched him attentively as he worked quietly. Then he turned to her and said, "Some times when our faith returns, darkness remains," he said plainly, "but we are strong at the broken spots and this reminded me of that…of you."

In his palm he held a black onyx cross, trimmed in tasteful Marcasite, about one inch wide and slightly longer with a tiny, but bright diamond at the center, suspended on a thin but strong silver chain. She reached out tentatively with shaky fingers to run her hand along his palm as her small fingers gently traced the dark light cross he held.

Many men had given her gifts they believed were thoughtful; candy, flowers, lingerie, but no one before had put this kind of consideration into a gift that had special meaning for her.

To most men a gift was a peace offering, a payment for a service, a requirement for a holiday, but to Charlie it was a chance to speak from his heart without having to say anything. It was a perfect gift, she realized.

Her head was still down, so he could not see her reaction and held his breath. She could be upset, he realized. It could be too soon. Only Dani would know when her faith returned and for a fraction of a second he almost closed his hand and apologized. But then she looked up and there were tears in her eyes, but a smile behind them.

"It's beautiful, Charlie," was all she could manage.

"Will you wear it for me?" he asked in a very gentle voice.

She nodded and turned around for him to fasten the clasp around her neck. His hands shook so badly he could barely manage the task. Charlie had the fleeting thought that if he ever got up the nerve to buy Dani Reese a ring, the proposal part might just kill him.

As he was about to climb back in the car, Dani stopped and spoke to him over the roof. "Do you realize its three years today that we became partners?" she asked him.

"No kidding," he smiled. "Let's celebrate at that Taco Stand over in Encino," he tossed back.

"Fifty million dollars and you still eat tacos from a trailer on a street corner," she laughed. "You're unbelievable, Charlie." She ducked down and into the car effectively ending the conversation.

"So are you Reese, so are you," Charlie said quietly to no one in particular.


	16. Chapter 16 Everett Washington

**Everett, Washington**

It took two days after the autopsy but eventually the swanky AFIS computer kicked out a hit. Turned out the dead girl's prints were in the system from a DUI back in 2005. Her name was Samantha Christine Akers. She was 27 years old and worked as a receptionist with an ad firm. Her favorite color was orange, she liked to jog, did tai chi and she was studying for a degree in Business at UCLA. These details they learned when her parents drove up from Simi Valley to identify her body.

Though it was always sad, this was how the Detectives got their first solid lead; Samantha was dating a man named Everett Washington. As the sad couple nodded tearfully over the remains of their only daughter a few feet away through the pane of wire-reinforced safety glass, Charlie wondered, "Hey, how come they put safety glass in morgues? Do they think someone's going to break out? Are there a lot fights down here?" He wondered out loud; his train of thought dribbling from his mouth like syrup from a maple tree. "Isn't there an Everett Washington?"

Dani wheeled and glared at him, "Weren't you listening? They said she was dating him," Dani said, sounding pinched and annoyed.

Dani ignored his rambling diatribe on safety glass, knowing there was nothing fruitful to be gained from encouraging him.

"Not the man, the city. Isn't there a city in Washington State called Everett?" he explained quietly, forgetting the safety glass entirely.

"And that would help us how?" Dani now clearly talking through clenched teeth snidely asked. She'd been ill this morning and so was more snippy than usual. He sighed heavily and surrendered that he really didn't know if it meant anything, but it was odd (as was the presence of safety glass in the morgue). At this she simply agreed with a silent nod of her head.

Samantha's father, Ronald, hated the boyfriend - leaving Charlie to wonder if all fathers felt no one was good enough for their daughters. He wondered if Jack Reese viewed him with the same disdain and unveiled contempt as Ronald Akers did his daughter's suitor. Although as he listened to Ronald describe what amounted to a snake oil salesman, Charlie began to dislike the man himself, despite never having met Everett Washington. The investor (in what Mr. Akers was unsure) maintained all the trappings of success; fancy cars and expensive suits, shoes and watches. The picture Akers painted of Washington was a man who dripped hollow charm, but possessed none of the character that came from hard work and dirty hands. It was clear Samantha's father loathed Washington, but that alone did not make him good for her murder.

Samantha's mother, Mary, was a quiet, attractive and well-groomed woman, who said little and sniffed quietly, and seemed somewhere else. She followed her husband's movements and angry tone with her eyes, but not the words he spoke. She was in shock and not registering events in real time. Later the true gravity of the loss they experienced would set in and then her world would crumple and collapse like it was swallowed by a black hole. Charlie knew instinctively that the key to what they needed about Everett Washington lay locked inside this shell of a woman, so as Ronald left to get her a coffee, he carefully probed for answers hidden in her unfathomed depths.

"Do you share your husband's opinion of Mr. Washington?" he inquired. She nodded but remained mute.

"Can you tell us about the last time you spoke to your daughter?" Dani followed up.

"She called me last week," the woman began nervously as both Charlie and Dani gave her a reassuring smile. "She was scared. He'd gotten so controlling. She said he monitored her cell calls and asked her about her daily activities like he was watching her. She was worried because he was so attentive when they began dating. She thought he was sweet, affectionate, but lately she told me he'd become possessive and it scared her."

Dani and Charlie exchanged a quick look. They knew this personality type. Men who at the onset seemed the dream guy; they called - a lot, sent flowers, visited often, but became increasingly controlling, possessive and abusive. This type of man was narcissistic, ambitious and often explosively violent. He could well be their man.

Mary Akers continued with downcast eyes and a guilty tone, "She wanted to end it and come home, but I told her he was a stable, financially secure man who treated her reasonably well and she could do a lot worse. I told her she was overreacting and she should try and make it work." Her tears increased as she put a voice to her growing fear, "Did he kill my daughter? Did I tell her to stay with a man who choked the life out of my little girl?"

She looked from one face to the other seeking any type of reaction. Her guilt was the deep burgundy of blood, staining the landscape of her present and possibly that of her future. Charlie reached for words that would give her some peace, but found none would come.

Dani offered the woman more tissues and then spoke, her choice to do so surprising Charlie. "It's hard to find a good man. There are a lot of jerks out there. Sometimes you have to take a chance. I'm sure your daughter knew she could come home – but as hard as it is to believe - sometimes we don't really know people, even those closest to us, those we choose to love," her eyes flicked to Charlie's, "and those who love us."

Charlie thought it might have been the most Dani said at one time in the nearly three years he'd known her. Clearly, she was speaking from experience, but he wondered if she was talking about her past or her present. The thought that someone taught Dani this painful lesson bothered him, causing him a twinge of regret for her and jealously for himself. There were times when he wanted to be the only man she'd ever loved. But when does that type of attachment turn dark? Was it better not to be attached at all? To have space, distance – a buffer to hold the world at bay – to keep yourself apart, alone - was that safer? Part of Dani always seemed hidden from him. He wanted to know it, but she was telling him there were things he would never know. Wasn't she?

As his partner consoled Mary Akers, Charlie's mind wandered to that which he kept hidden from her – the evils he'd done, the pain he'd caused. These were his burden, not hers. These sins he bore alone, his partner had her own secrets, ones he would never ask her about. In that moment, he recalled that "being in the moment" meant letting the past stay in the past. Dani's eyes were clear and strong as they looked past the woman to him.

"Sometimes chances cost us, but it's the only way we connect to each other. If Everett did harm Samantha, then he'll answer for it, but you aren't responsible for that. You have to let that go. It won't bring her back, it will only bring you pain," Dani explained. She was talking to Mary, but she was speaking to him. She was talking about them, about their singular dark pasts and the linked uncertain future. The sins they both carried and the ones they must lay down. She was alluding to the way in which the weight of the past can become a millstone around your neck, dragging you down into dark waters. He nodded his understanding and echoed his partner's promise.

"We'll find the man who did this, Mary," he said, compassion in his tone and body language.

"Then what?" she asked forlornly.

No one spoke because there was nothing to say, nothing that meant anything. The grave silence was broken as Ronald entered with coffee and the Detectives said their goodbyes. Ronald lived in righteous indignation and desired vengeance. It was fire that warmed him now, but would soon rage out of control and consume him. He was Charlie before the Zen. Mary lived in the despair of guilt – a deep, dark hole of solitary suffering that would threaten to swallow her and extinguish any light that ever lived in her soul. She was Dani before Charlie. Sometimes murders killed more than the victim. Sometimes it killed everything its dark light touched – stealing faith, trust, innocence and severing connections in a way that time could neither repair nor replace.

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Charlie asked softly.

"No," she said tersely, "no I don't think they will, Charlie." He took the unusual step of covering her hand with his in full view of anyone watching; he expected her to recoil, bristle and pull away, she did not. She smiled up at him and leaned into him for just a fraction of a second and then she was gone. "Let's go get this fucker, Crews. Let's get him and hope it's enough to get us through today," she said. She was Reese again and Dani was hidden away. "I'm beginning to really hate this job – all the darkness," she said.

"Me too, Reese," he echoed her sentiments. "Me too."


	17. Chapter 17 The Man Not The City

**The Man Not The City**

Everett Washington was not at work and no one had seen him in a couple days. Dani smiled at this news, knowing in her gut, they were closing in on their killer. They drove to an upscale apartment, all glass and mirrors; chic, shiny and impersonal. It screamed narcissistic personality disorder. Charlie's rueful stare at the apartment told her she'd been right (as usual). "I hate that you are so good at this," he told her.

"I've just been at it longer than you," she explained, thinking his comment was jealously, competition, but it wasn't.

"That's not what I mean. You've become comfortable with death, with the worst people can do to each other and I want you to have….something different, something better." He tried to explain. "I know you don't want me to protect you, don't need me to, but I want to do it anyway." He looked out the window. "I want to keep you from feeling alone in the dark."

"You do," she smiled at him, tugging on his sleeve. "I know you're there. You're always there, Charlie."

They sat in companionable silence for a few moments before returning to their normal surveillance behavior. They talked about the case and Charlie ate fruit. Today's fruit was beautiful, sweet and ripe nectarines. He had two and after an interested look from Dani, he took the unprecedented step of slicing off pieces for her, which she accepted without comment. It secretly pleased him, but he kept his smile small and tried not to make a big deal out of it.

They batted theories back and forth, a behavior that would later help them during interrogation when they would need to finish each other's thoughts and sentences. They had to transition smoothly and follow each other's thoughts seamlessly while talking to the suspect. It was their routine; it was normalcy and comforting.

"She tried to leave him and he killed her? Dumped the body in the park to make it look like a stranger?" she began.

"Do you see this guy killing her in a moment of anger and then having the patience and taking the time to redress her? Lay her out like Sleeping Beauty in the park?" Charlie inquired. She shrugged.

"Maybe he sees himself as a prince? When she tells him to take a hike he doesn't take it well?" She offered in return. "But you're right, the redressing part means he took time. That speaks to a level of comfort and could mean he's done it before," she looked at him sideways.

"You're thinking serial?" he responded with his bottom lip poked out showing his skepticism. "He seems pretty established in the neighborhood for a serial. He's been here awhile, he has a job and a nice place. If he's a serial, I'll bet if we dig deep he has no past."

"Thought the past didn't exist?" She smirked with her Zen dig. She loved using it to poke fun at him, turning his words back on him. He sometimes forgot how smart she was, how she absorbed everything and recalled things with almost eidetic efficiency. "Okay, so what's your idea?" she countered; her look was defiant and proud. He loved it when she became this kind of riled up. She looked fiery, dangerous and so very hot.

"Okay, I'll call in a background on Everett Washington, the man not the city - and have them go deep, pull financials, and check ViCAP for matching crimes, but that will take some time," he placated her, so she'd continue. Her tight smile told him she knew he didn't quite agree with her, but didn't have anything to base it on.

"The jewelry he bought, so he kept it. He's an owner, a collector. He buys things, gathers things; fast cars, pretty women, fancy apartment. He's all show – no go. Maybe she laughed at him, said something about his physique, the size of his dick and he lost it," she shot back restarting their interrogatory.

"What about the lack of ID?"

She shrugged, admittedly stumped, "I don't know, I mean he clearly wanted her found… and what Dax said about the 'red man'….I got nothing."

"DL photo and description says 'Caucasian' so he's not an Indian," Charlie read off the quick results from his cell. The rest would take several hours.

"Will you give the Indian thing a rest?" her annoyance apparent again. "Ever since that trip to the reservation, you've had this thing about Indians."

"Before then…since I was a kid really," he volunteered. "When we played cowboys and Indians, I always want to be an Indian, never a cowboy," he grinned. "Did you ever play cowboys and Indians?" She shook her head no and he could tell she wanted to ask him, so he gave her what she wanted without her having to ask. "I loved how the Indians dressed; their feathers and war paint; how they rode their ponies bareback and that even the horses were painted. I loved that they used bows and arrows against men with Gatling guns; that they never gave up even when outnumbered, outmatched and outgunned. They battled and sometimes only through sheer force of will, they'd win. Did you know that whites tried to enslave Indians like they did the blacks, but the Indians would sooner die than be slaves? They were fierce and I admired their spirit."

Dani looked long and hard at him, assessing what he'd divulged and what that said about the boy and the man so enamored of the warrior culture. "So you've always been on the side of the underdog?"

"I guess so." He looked sideways at her.

"Me too, Charlie," she offered softly, as she grasped his hand. "Me too." Her implication was that he was that underdog, that Indian, who refused to be enslaved, who fought to the end no matter the cost. He was beautiful in his feathers and headdress of fiery red hair and she loved that about him, so she told him. "I love that about you," she said in a near whisper.

She wanted him to know that she respected his decision not to give in, while she eyed Washington's house from the window. It was a simple statement but intimate in the way it let Charlie know another bridge was crossed.

He let her have the moment and then took them out of it. "Yeah, well, my mom did not love that I used her very expensive lipstick as war paint," he chuckled. "I had to mow yards and rake leaves for three weeks to make enough money to replace it. Why is lipstick so expensive anyway?" She shrugged. He looked in the distance remembering, "It was totally worth it, the best color ever. I was the best Indian on my block."

"I bet you were," Dani said, squeezing his hand and drawing his eyes back to hers. They shared a smile, which was interrupted with the arrival of one silver BMW 325i, with a personalized license plate that read "2FAST4U".

As the pricey car slid to the curb Charlie announced, "Head's up - looks like our man."

"Figures," Reese was all business now as she disconnected from him and cracked her door. The thought that no matter how much he wanted to protect her he couldn't, made him frown slightly as he climbed from the car and followed his partner's lead.

An elegant man in an expensive suit exited the coupe with his back to them. "Everett Washington?" Dani asked in her commanding, no BS tone. The man froze for an instant and his shoulder's tensed under his jacket, then slowly he turned and everything Dax said became clear.

Before them stood a handsome man, in his mid 30's, with perfectly coiffed hair and the most ridiculous spray on tan either of them had ever seen. He was a caricature of a man; the perfect suspect and Dani's grin became positively predatory as she introduced them. "I'm Detective Reese, this is Detective Crews, LAPD Homicide and we'd like to ask you a few questions about Samantha Akers," she said, keeping her enthusiasm for the suspect in check.

The man looked from Charlie to Dani and back trying to decide who was truly in charge. "I don't know anyone by that name," he said, smiling with his obvious attempt to disarm Dani with charm.

"Wrong answer, buddy," Charlie couldn't help himself.

Dani shot him a dark look that spoke volumes. She didn't want him to get cocky, which Charlie had a tendency to do with abusive men. It was as though he wanted to provoke a violent reaction so he could give them a little of their own medicine. But they had not one shred of physical evidence and despite what they show on TV, DNA would take weeks - even on a priority case. The excited ramblings of a five year old aside, the only thing that currently connected Everett to Samantha was them dating, something he was denying. This was far from convincing evidence, not enough for an arrest warrant. They needed him to come in willingly. This was delicate.

"Yes, well…I'm quite busy so if you'll excuse me…" Washington went for the brush off.

"Mistake number two," Charlie quipped.

Dani looked at him as though she wanted to smack him, before taking one last run at the man, short of just throwing him in cuffs and hauling him down to the station. Arrests involved lawyers and took time they didn't have. Her gut told her Washington was their guy and lawyers just complicated things. She wanted to clear this case.

"Well, since you don't know her - this won't take long. There is just the little matter of her body being found in a city park two days ago. Her parents are convinced you two were dating. I'm sure that an accomplished professional like you has plenty of offers and some women just like to claim they're dating someone wealthy, handsome and successful." She smiled sweetly, playing to the man's monstrous ego. He relaxed his guard for just a moment and oozed charm, smiling brightly at Dani and ignoring Charlie.

The snake oil salesman image flickered in Charlie's mind. If Washington thought he was going to charm his partner's socks off he was in for a big surprise. Dani was completely immune to the man's charm and Charlie had to suppress a grin as he watched Washington realize his magic didn't work on his tough little partner. His expression changed and Dani turned officious.

"Look, we can do this the hard way or the easy way," Dani said, putting her hands squarely on her hips.

Maybe it was her smirk or the light dancing in her eyes that distracted Charlie, but he missed the slight shift in Washington signaling his transition from prey to predator. He was ready for the man to run; he was not ready for him to attack.

It happened in an instant, the moment Dani said the magic words. "We just need a sample of your DNA to rule you out. It's painless, just chew on this little swab," she said glancing down for a fraction of a second. It was just enough time to provide an opening. As she looked down to produce the cotton swab, Everett sprang, closing the distance between them quickly. Dani had stepped to the front of the car, near the curb and a simple shove coupled with the extra distance made her go down hard.

She was more embarrassed than hurt, but Charlie was enraged, at himself for missing the cues and at Washington for hurting her. He expected Washington to run, but the man did not, he assumed a fighting stance and sneered at Charlie, like the slighter detective was outmatched.

Charlie rounded the car bumper in a flash, knowing he'd been underestimated before and was comfortable in that role – as the underdog. Washington had thirty pounds and two inches reach on the lanky Detective, but he failed to appreciate Charlie's grit and hard won experience. Charlie never even considered using his gun, fully intending to enjoy visiting pain on this man with his bare hands. Charlie's speed was his edge and he delivered a vicious right before Everett had time to register the blow coming. It was flung wildly and blind, but connected solidly.

Everett laughed and stood rock solid against the force thrown at him, apparently not all his pride was vanity because he returned a flurry of well-aimed body blows, knocking the wind from Charlie, but not knocking him off his feet. Charlie threw another well-aimed right and a wild left. The right was blocked by Everett's thick forearm, the left glanced off his head, grazing his ear and causing his some small measure of pain. The man's breath hitched and he hissed as his ear rung.

Charlie's right arm was pinned as Everett wrapped him up in a tight hold. Everett kneed Charlie and then used his free hand to punish the Detective's exposed jaw and face. The net effect was to render Charlie somewhat senseless. His ears rung, his eyes watered and a cut over his eye streamed blood, obscuring his sight. But Crews was far from done as he pulled back and smashed his forehead into Everett's in a quick but effective head butt, forcing the man to release him. Charlie shook his head to clear it and staggered back a couple steps, but found Everett coming at him for more. His head told him, use your gun; but his mind was back in the yard and Pelican Bay and he was fighting for his life.

Dani was on her feet with her gun drawn, shouting, "Freeze or I WILL shoot you."

Washington knew she meant it and the matter could have been over but for Charlie's silent charge. He lowered his head and attacked the man like a tackling dummy from high school football practice. He lifted the man off his feet, carried him a few steps and slammed him back into the ground with gusto. Charlie then settled astride Washington's torso, wrapping his long, lean hands around the man's neck. "You like to choke women? Let's see how you do with someone your own size," he taunted.

He couldn't see much as the blood flowed freely down his face and into his eyes, which swam with tears. In the distance, Charlie could hear Reese shouting, sounding far away like she was in a tunnel. He realized she was probably shouting at him, but all he could feel was the white, hot glow of rage – it warmed him like the sun. Everett thrashed under him and Charlie hit the man in the face sharply to quiet him down.

Dani, realizing she was not getting through to him, resorted to drastic measures. She holstered her sidearm and stood over Everett's head, drew back and slapped Charlie as hard as she could, her hand leaving a welt on his pale face and his blood on her hand. His snarled lips softened and his bloodlust disappeared as his head snapped up to find no new enemy, only his partner. His eyes dimmed and he focused on her standing before him, her raw hands bleeding from her forceful contact with the street. The rage in him was replaced instantly with concern for her. He climbed from Everett with one last knee to the man's torso for good measure and stepped to his partner's aid. But she retreated a step for each one he took.

"It's okay, honey," he counseled softly. "I won't let him hurt you." She looked from her partner's concerned eyes to the beaten man sprawling in the grass. She was reeling, unsure what to do, seeking balance, control, direction, so she went home to what she knew, "Cuff him, Crews," she directed. "We are cops, not thugs." He nodded mutely, rolled the man over and affixed handcuffs behind the man's back, leaving him prone in the grass. She was all senior partner now, warning him sternly as he approached, "Don't." There was no Dani, just Detective Reese.

"Dani…I," he began. She pointed stiffly at him and warned him again, "Don't." She turned on her heel and walked away. It wasn't until she reached the car to call for a patrol unit that she realized she was shaking.


	18. Chapter 18 Bruised

**Bruised**

Charlie sulked and dabbed at the cut over his eye as the medics tended to Washington and Tidwell arrived to see how a routine pickup had turned into a ten round bantamweight fight.

"Wanna explain to me why no one used their sidearm, a taser, pepper spray or backup? You want a work out Crews? Join a gym. We are not bouncers, we're cops," the Captain scolded. "We're gonna get sued." He ran a hand through his long dirty blonde hair and sighed heavily.

"It's my fault, Captain." Dani took the blame for him. "I lost control of the suspect and Detective Crews did what he had to. I stand by his actions. I'm his senior partner and I'm responsible for him."

Tidwell leaned very close to Dani to speak, but looked directly at Charlie who was sitting on the hood of their unmarked, "No, Detective. Your partner lost control because he's in love with you. Now you two work this out or I'll be forced to split you up."

Charlie swallowed hard and knew the man was right, Dani carefully examined her shoes and Tidwell sent them both home.

"We're going to book him in for assault, resisting and wait on the murder charge. Go home, get cleaned up, get your heads on straight and take a run at him in the morning. Oh…and Crews, be prepared for more quality time with your friends with IAD." He looked directly at Dani, "Get control over him or he's going to have you both riding a desk.

* * *

The ride home was silent and Dani drove the car like it was a rocket. She was clearly quite angry and nothing could be said that was going to change that. Charlie remained uncharacteristically quiet and kept pressure on the still oozing cut. He figured he'd be lucky if she slowed down to sixty so he could jump out when she did the drive by of his house, so he was nothing short of shocked when she pulled into the drive, put the car in park and turned off the ignition.

"You have to stop doing this, Charlie," she said softly. "I can't fight bad guys and you too," she chastised. He knew he deserved it, but he simply sighed in response.

"Answer me, Crews," she snapped at him.

"What do you want me to say? That I won't do it again? We both know that would be a lie," he confessed.

This was their first real fight as a couple, one where he was not going to give in and neither would she. He expected her to throw him out of the car and leave, so he was shocked when she pulled the keys from the ignition and opened the door. He sat there a moment, prompting her to ask, "You coming?" He nodded and concealed his surprise.

"You're staying?" he questioned and that stopped her in her tracks.

She did not turn, but she threw back to him, "Aren't you the one who told Ted I live here now?" He smiled, he was glad she was staying, even if he had to sleep on the couch, even if she stayed mad for a month – she stayed and that was something.

She steered him upstairs and turned on the hot water, soaking a washcloth intent on cleaning up his wound. Despite the butterfly the medics put on it, the cut stubbornly refused to stop bleeding. The stream of blood bothered her as it dried to a cracked line of deep purple along his temple and down his cheek to his jaw line.

"Sit," she demanded.

"I'm fine," he groused, not ready to be mothered.

"Did I ask you how you were?" She glared at him and told him again, "Sit down or I'm going to tase you."

She actually looked like she might and at this stage enjoy it, so he did as he was told. He reclined against the bathroom counter as she stepped between his legs and grabbed his chin firmly, skewing his head hard to the side so she could see the cut better. There was an ugly bruise on his cheekbone and the shape of her hand in red across the side of his face. She paused in her wiping to examine the welts left by her fingers in the handprint visible on his pale skin, swallowing guiltily for how hard she'd struck him.

"You have my handprint on your face," she remarked and he turned to look at himself in the mirror. She turned him back around and used the washcloth to clean up the trickle of blood from his eyebrow. She removed the butterfly and the wound gaped open. "You should get this stitched up," she chided.

"I've had worse," he offered glumly, adding, "I don't like hospitals," when she glared at him. He remained silent while she reaffixed the butterfly and secured a Band-Aid over it to catch the blood it oozed. He grimaced as she pressed the bandage down hard, but did not protest further. As she wrung out the hot cloth again, he noticed her hands shaking slightly and caught them both in his.

Her hands were scraped from the pavement and she still shook lightly as he turned her palms up and carefully and gingerly touched them with the warm, wet cloth. "Guess we got to swear that blood oath after all," he commented wryly, reminding her of when she took his knife from him for using it instead of his pistol.

"What are you gonna do now? Lock my hands in your desk drawer?" he joked. She pulled away from him angrily.

"How about I just handcuff you to the steering wheel and leave you in the fucking car?"

"Do you want another partner?" he teased, half-serious.

"I want you to think and not just react, Charlie," she sighed and seemed unsure of what came next.

"Hey," he said softly, "Come're," and gently tugged her into his embrace, kissing her hair.

"I'm still mad at you," she grumbled into his chest.

"Better to stay awake all night than to go to bed with a dragon," he offered her Zen.

"What the fuck does that mean? Am I supposed to be the dragon? No…you know what - I don't want to know," she pushed away, her anger returning.

"It just means don't go to bed angry."

"Why can't you just talk like a normal person?"

"Shhh…I know. I can be a jerk," he offered in apology.

"Why'd you do that? Why won't you listen to me? Why did you make me have to hit you?"

"I didn't hear you. I mean I heard you – but I didn't. It didn't register. There are times when I can't escape my past, when I lose control, when I am back in the yard at Pelican Bay fighting for my life. Some of me will always be there, in the yard. In those moments, nothing else exists except rage, fury and the need to fight, to stay alive, to survive."

She examined his words and his face and found truth there, "Then don't let it go that far. Use your pistol."

He returned a quizzical look and countered, "Here's what I don't get… I can shoot the guy, no problem. But I hit him and it's a big deal. Seems backwards to me," he argued.

His point was a good one; she chewed on her lip before accepting that his logic did not excuse his behavior. "That may be true, but you wanted him to resist. You wanted to fight him. Those things you said? Those snide comments? Charlie, those were designed to provoke a response from him. Part of you likes the fight."

"You're right," he admitted, having the decency to at least look chagrinned, before gently asking her, "Hey, are we okay?"

She kissed him gently on his battered brow. "I'm not bailing, if that's what you are thinking. But if you get us assigned to desk duty, you'll wish you never met me," she threatened lightly. "If I have to ride a desk for even one day, I am going to make you pay - in ways those men in prison never thought of," she told him. The icy way she delivered the threat made him shiver slightly with delicious fear and anticipation at Dani's tough talk and fierce look.

They had a light meal of pasta and chicken before retiring and as he disrobed, Dani once again watched him wince as his battle-scarred body bore new bruises and cuts. "When are you going to stop punishing yourself?" she asked him directly.

He said nothing, as she helped him out of his shirt. "Does it feel good to hurt?"

"No, it feels like every inch of me is bruised," he admitted.

"Good, maybe you'll think twice about pulling a boneheaded stunt like that again," she said with a small degree of satisfaction that he was paying for his position with pain. Her anger was slow to wear off and would heal as slowly as the cuts and bruises he wore. But then she slid under the covers and snuggled close to him, wrapping an arm over his battered chest, and gently resting her head on his shoulder and it was all worth it.

He winced slightly at the pressure, but gladly accepted her closeness. Once his chin rested on her head and he inhaled the smell of her shampoo, he eased and their breathing leveled out falling into an unconscious rhythm as sleep overtook them.

Dani awoke late in the night to Charlie mumbling and thrashing; wrestling demons in his sleep. She reasoned that his sore body took him back to his days inside and his subconscious transported him there. She spoke softly to him, calling him back. He never truly woke, but he became aware enough of her to drift away from the dark dreams and his body stilled. She watched him return to a restful sleep and realized he did hear her – even when not technically conscious he heard her and he responded.

She thought about her own demons and how hard they were to fight alone. She was stronger with Crews by her side and she wanted to be that anchor for him. She wanted to be the lighthouse that lit the way on those dark nights in the fog. She wanted to be enough for him to let go of that need to punish himself, as she had. She thought about all those long years he'd spent alone, wandering in the dark, lost. Her anger became less hot and her concern for him bubbled to the surface, "Come home to me Charlie," she whispered to him as she returned to sleep.

He mumbled two words in response; "Dani…home," and she smiled quietly. There was hope for them yet.

* * *

Charlie woke in the predawn hours when the morning was at its coldest and the sky still a brightening blue hinting at the colors and warmth to come. Dani was gone and the bed beside him was cold, she'd been gone awhile. His heart raced with anxiety. Had she decided in the night she wouldn't stay with a man who couldn't control his violent outbursts? Did he remind her of someone abusive? Did she think someday that his anger and rage would be turned on her?

He slipped out of his warm bed and padded quietly to the window, his feet bare on the chilly marble floor. The car was still in the drive. He let out a ragged sigh of relief and ran a hand through his short red hair. He willed himself to calm down and then thought hard about his lack of self-control and it's effect on Dani. He had self-control, except when it came to someone threatening or hurting her. He linked the pieces together: Roman, Rick Larsen, Nick Cudahy, Everett Washington…all men who hurt women he cared about, women he loved. Like his father had hurt his mother, he realized.

He'd blocked it out in his idealized memory of his childhood, the one he clung to in prison, but the ugly specter of domestic abuse was always there. His gracious and discreet mother who wore long sleeves and dark glasses to cover the bruises; the ones he knew were there but they never talked about. The whispered fights in the dark of night when they though he couldn't hear. His father was a bastard, Dani's too. Were they destined to repeat the mistakes and failures of their upbringing or could they break the cycle of violence?

If he dared think about a future with Dani and their little dark-haired girl, he had to convince her they could stop it. He had to convinced her he could control himself and he vowed to never again let her see the rage which seethed in him. His anger, violence, hate, rage, fury, all that had to be buried deep in his soul to never again see the light of day. As the dawn began to break, he steeled himself to this fact and padded through the house seeking his mate.

He looked in every room, but could not find her; then he noticed a silhouette in the brightening sky perched on a chaise lounge on the patio by the pool. She was looking into the distance deep in thought. He swallowed hard knowing it was them she was thinking about. He had to make this right, not a meaningless apology like so many men make the morning after, but something that meant something. He walked to the fridge and poured a glass of orange juice and stepped out onto the cold stone deck.

He knew Dani registered his presence but she did not engage or even turn to look at him, instead she simply sat forward on the chair, allowing him to step over it and sit behind her. He gently drew her back against his chest and she felt cold to him. She'd been there long enough to become chilled. He handed her the juice, which she took and, surprisingly, drank without comment. He felt as though he were walking on the edge of a knife. He wrapped both arms around her and warmed her against his chest, feeling her relax.

They sat that way as the sun rose, painting the canyons in fantastic colors with its silent approach. The transition between the night and day always seemed to Charlie like being reborn into the world. A lone sand-colored coyote cut across the stone deck on his way home after a night out scavenging, pausing to look at them curiously before continuing on his way. As he kissed her temple, he felt Dani's smile grace her features as her eyes crinkled at the corners. Birds heralded the arrival of dawn, waking from their perches and singing mightily in celebration. _Every day I spend above ground is a reason to celebrate_, he'd told Carl Ames. He still felt that way, more so now that Dani was in it with him.

Dani took one of his hands and turned it over placing a bunch of grapes into it. That was what she'd chosen to bring with her into the cold, dark night to keep her company while she thought. It was an odd choice for her, but as he popped one into his mouth releasing the clean, crisp taste he was reminded again of why he enjoyed them. They ate grapes, drank OJ and sat together peacefully and did not speak, until the sun emerged casting shards of yellow light out in front of them. Then he said quietly, "I'm sorry," against her ear and she told him, "I know."

Their fight was over, but Charlie's battle had just begun.


	19. Chapter 19 The Talk

**The Talk**

Washington promptly invoked his right to counsel and they didn't even get a crack at him. After several hours of wrangling, they were able to secure a warrant for his car, which was impounded at the time of the hulking businessman's arrest. When hey popped the trunk, Dani smiled like she'd won the lottery because there plain as day was Samantha Aker's missing shoe.

"He must have beat us back to the park and retrieved it," she surmised.

"Rookie mistake leaving it in the car though," Charlie offered. "Lucky for us," he grinned and she grinned back.

He looked like an Irish boxer with his cut brow and bruised face, but his eyes were clear and as blue as the Pacific. She stared him for a long moment and seemed to want to say something and then thought better of it and returned to the work at hand. By mid-morning, they had no more evidence, but the shoe alone was enough to get them a warrant for the house.

Dani wryly commented to the Crime Scene Sergeant that is was a nice dry indoor scene and she expected to see photos that didn't look like a Monet painting. "Won't happen again Detective, I swear," the swarthy sergeant promised. He was smitten with Dani, but she continued her tough guy act with everyone but her partner. "God, I'd love to make her smile just once," Charlie heard the sergeant comment to a tech under his breath.

Charlie's face became serene as he realized not only did he have what he wanted, but what everyone else wanted too, her. He could make her smile and he intended to, a lot more and for the rest of her life – if she'd let him. With no suspect to question and CSI going over the house with a fine-toothed comb, their day ended surprisingly early.

* * *

"Hey, Charlie. What are you doing home so early?" Ted asked.

His grey hair was all spiky from the pool water and suntan lotion and he was still dressed in damp swim trunks from an afternoon spent lounging by the pool. Ted was surprised to see his hardworking millionaire employer and friend home so early. He usually had run of the main house to himself during daylight hours and, as a result, spent the better part of the afternoon reviewing Charlie's stock holdings via the wireless internet on his laptop by the pool. He was a still bit distracted by the unpredicted dip in technology stocks as his red haired friend entered the kitchen whistling cheerfully and unloading fresh fruit from the market. "More fruit?"

"Hey," Charlie smiled easily and began to extract fruit from his bag. "Dani and I have something to discuss, so I thought she likes cantaloupe and then I saw this pineapple and the grapes looked so good."

"Oh, yeah…what is it that she wants to discuss?" Ted offered like he cared. "And since when did Detective Reese like fruit?" he continued, somewhat suspiciously.

"I have no idea," Charlie answered, paying more attention to the second question than the first, as he gazed unseeing through the kitchen window and thought hard about Ted's question. Reese had never really eaten fruit in the nearly three years he'd known her. In fact, she'd eaten more fruit in the past three weeks than she had in all their time together. He shrugged and hoped maybe he was growing on her, as he cut up at a lime, intent on adding it to the Corona longneck bottle he removed from the six-pack before putting the rest in the fridge.

"Beer?" he offered Ted.

"Come again?" Ted said his girl radar going off.

"Did you want a beer?" Charlie repeated his offer and waved a longneck in the air.

Ted just shook his head at the younger man's innocence when it came to women. "No, I mean, yes…sure beer. But Charlie, what's she want to talk about?"

"I don't know," Charlie said, popping the top of the bottle against the marble counter, which made Ted wince. Charlie's absolutely lack of regard for material possession sometimes chaffed him and he had to remind himself the man could afford new countertops as often as he chipped them by popping tops on the edges.

Ted also forgot that Charlie was married to his high school sweetheart and the sum total of his experience post prison was one night stands with pretty young things. Charlie didn't speak "girl" and he was about to get a crash course in precisely what women meant when they said, "we need to talk". He gulped loudly, "Uh…Charlie. Concentrate. What exactly did she say?"

"She said she had an appointment and I should meet her at home early so we could talk. What?" Charlie was beginning to appreciate the apprehension in Ted's voice and the fear behind his eyes. "Does that mean something?"

Ted just glared. "You don't know do you? You really don't know… This is bad Charlie," Ted warned.

"How could talking be bad?" Charlie asked innocently.

"Oh, you poor man," Ted remarked. "Because when a woman says those words - it means you've done something. What have you done Charlie?"

"Nothing. Nothing bad," he shrugged and took a long pull off his beer. "She didn't seem mad, Ted. I don't see how this could be bad. Reese doesn't hide her anger - hold it for later. When she's mad, I know right away, she's not shy about letting me know when she's pissed off at me - or the world in general for that matter," he finished, smiling wistfully at Dani's sometimes fearsome anger.

"Trust me on this, Charlie," Ted warned, "something's up."

"Maybe she's happy, Ted." Charlie's mood was positively buoyant, "Did you ever think that maybe it's something good she wants to tell me?"

"It's never good, Charlie." Ted seemed to focus on somewhere far away, something distant, his look turned wistful and odd.

Charlie considered that Ted had a great deal more experience with long-term relationships and replayed Dani's short but firm statement in his head. She stood before him at his desk, hands on her hips, lips pursed and something clearly on her mind.

"_Reese__?__" he questioned. _

"_Meet me at home tonight early, Crews. We need to talk."_

"_And where are you going to be?" he followed up with her._

"_I've got a stop to make, something I need to confirm, but I'll be home early."_ She concluded her comments with a smile in her eyes and on her lips, one he wanted to touch with his own just to feel her soft, smooth lips against his and her sweet breath mixed with his. She didn't seem mad, she just seemed intense, she seemed Dani. But in his mind, in his heart, in his eyes, she was happy, content, satisfied. Was it possible he was wrong?

He stood staring out across the valley taking pulls off his beer from time to time, while Ted puttered and worried in the background. Things had been going well between Charlie and his diminutive, mercurial partner of late; enough so that in the pocket of his jacket, which now hung on the back of his dining room chair, there was small blue velvet box that contained a platinum engagement ring. He glanced at his jacket remembering what lay there; a flawless emerald cut solitaire, large enough to convey her worth to him, but not so big as to be ostentatious. One had to walk a fine line with Dani, one he was learning constantly shifted and blurred.

But Charlie Crews was at heart a one-woman man. He honestly felt that one woman was his partner and she alone would be enough – the money would just make them comfortable. There was a time in his not so distant past that he thought that woman could only have been Jen, but now he knew it was not, she never was the "one" for him. His "one" was Dani Reese and of this he was certain. For all her flaws, Charlie loved her; perhaps because of them – not in spite of them.

He smiled, realizing they had reached the point where he knew her sharp edges and soft spots well enough now that he only pissed her off when he wanted to. He knew when she was really mad instead of just pretending to be. He was the only person she let past her defenses into that special secret place in her heart that held her trust, her faith and her love all kept protected in a tiny box reserved for the most precious of gifts. He also knew her disastrous past made her uniquely qualified to appreciate his. She was familiar with pain, loss, betrayal – although these were things he was determined she would never experience again. He also knew the idea of marriage, commitment would spook her, so for now the little blue box stayed in his pocket where it could live comfortably for however many weeks or months it took to convince his fierce little partner that they belonged together.

One day he planned to marry her – just as he'd told her mother; the "when" was entirely up to Dani. Charlie considered that so were the "how" and the "where", but these were areas he'd gladly cede control of - for the simple privilege of waking beside her each morning for as long as he lived. Though it was the future, and thus uncertain, the simple weight of the box and the shape of it against his hand when he patted his pocket sometimes made him smile for no apparent reason.

"Charlie," his friend interjected, "Are you sure you haven't done something?"

Charlie simply smiled knowingly. "No, I'm not…but whatever it is I'll make it right."

"You really do love her, don't you?" Ted asked, stepping in front of his friend to look Charlie square in the eye.

Charlie just rolled his eyes, "Yes, Ted, I do." Ted worried a lot. But Charlie only worried for Dani, not about her.

"We should talk about a pre-nup, Charlie." Ted broached the subject delicately but directly, knowing Charlie was not the sort to leave things casual. He knew his friend would want to marry; Charlie was at heart a monogamous family man who had long been without monogamy and, so far as Ted knew, always without a family. A father Charlie hadn't talked with in twelve years and recently shot (albeit accidentally) probably didn't qualify, except in the strictest technical terms, as family.

"Not necessary," Charlie shook his head sharply and took another long pull off the Corona draining it. "Anything she wants she can have." He smiled, somehow appearing slightly goofy and utterly sincere at the same time, "If I can have her, the rest I'd gladly give to anyone."

Ted looked seriously at his lovesick friend. "You are such a simple guy, Charlie."

"Thank you, Ted," he replied, smiling at what he clearly viewed as a compliment.

"Hey, at least she'd not pregnant." Ted kidded.

"What?" Charlie twisted his head violently, suddenly serious. "What did you just say?"

"Relax, it was a joke. I'm sure she's very serious about birth control. Detective Reese does not strike me as the kind of woman that leaves that sort of thing to chance," Ted stammered, concerned he'd unnecessarily upset or offended Charlie from his friend's immediate intense reaction.

"Now it makes sense…" Charlie muttered, connecting the dots. "She doesn't like fruit, she's never liked fruit, she's…" he continued talking under his breath like he had in the early days, right after he was released from prison. Then he abruptly hugged Ted and just as quickly released him.

"I have to shower, she'll be home soon," he explained, taking the stairs two at a time, then reversed course and grabbed his jacket and patted the pocket. "I'm gonna need this." He smiled a mega watt smile at Ted before once again bounding up the stairs and out of sight.

"What just happened?" Ted spoke to no one in particular, then his brain engaged and he understood Crews' enthusiasm. "So, wait…." he offered his question in a rising voice until he shouted after Charlie who was now out of sight. "Is Detective Reese pregnant?"

The words no sooner left his mouth than Ted registered the presence of Dani Reese in the doorway to their home and she did not look pleased. "Uh….that wasn't what you think it was….it was…we were," he stammered through his obvious distress. "Charlie!"

"He can't hear you," she offered, dark eyes glittering, as Ted's mouth went dry. Her small smile let him know she was toying with him and enjoying his distress, but that did little to alleviate his anxiousness. "Great thing about this house," she continued, "and Crews allergic reaction to curtains - is that you can see everything that goes on in here from the driveway, as I'm sure you've noticed."

"Okay…it's exactly what you think it was, but I mean that in the best possible way," Ted smiled shyly. "Charlie's probably upstairs doing back flips just thinking you might be…" he offered cautiously optimistic she viewed this as a good thing. "Are you?"

Dani said absolutely nothing and simply held his gaze until he looked away. Then she walked purposefully, past him, ignoring the elephant in the room and began making her way up the stairs. _If she wasn't pissed before, she was now_ Ted thought, "Sorry buddy" as he rapidly left for his garage apartment and awaited the fallout from their "talk".


	20. Chapter 20 The Power of Dreams

**The Power of Dreams**

Dani entered their bedroom, still amazed how quickly his bed, his house and his car had become "theirs". Maybe because Crews firmly refused to own anything it was easier for her to lay claim to his things, but what she wanted most was nowhere in sight, Crews himself. She found a trail of his clothes leading from the doorway to the bathroom. As she bent to pick things up, she noticed only his jacket lay neatly on the bed. She could see the misshapen pocket and curiosity got the better of her, but shock was her only reaction when she opened the small blue box and found a diamond that had to easily cost six months wages for an LAPD Detective.

She reasoned it was too much, even for a man worth millions, surprising herself that the price of the diamond disturbed her far more than the prospect of marriage. It made her think hard about all the things that were changing between them. She stood imagining how what she would tell him could change things for several long moments as she listened to him first whistling, then with the addition of shower water, singing. His tune was good and words utter nonsense, but he was singing mightily.

Everything Charlie did, he did with gusto and she tried to imagine how this good-natured man was unceremoniously dumped into her life and how from that moment on – not one single thing had ever been the same. She realized it never would. It was what the Buddhist referred to as impermanence and the fact that she knew that made her smile, whilst shaking her head ruefully that she possessed such knowledge. Crews, she thought. Only Crews could do these things to her.

Charlie emerged from the bathroom his hair sticking up at odd angles, wet from the shower, with his lower torso wrapped in a large tan Egyptian cotton bath sheet. His chest was bare and his blue eyes twinkled with mischief and mirth, but he forced himself to stand very still and exhale a long slow breath, before delivering a simple "hi." Dani figured it must be hormones because he never seemed sexier, but played it cool though she badly wanted to touch him, to feel him and to have his hands, mouth and tongue on her.

"When I said we needed to talk," she wryly continued, "this wasn't how I imagine you being dressed." Her smirk let him know she was indeed not angry, but still he tread lightly.

"I thought I had more time," he grinned.

"We always do," she offered, in her own unintentional yet cryptically Zen way.

He approached cautiously and quietly, as if on cat's feet, until she could smell his clean body and a hint of that expensive soap that drove her mad. He gently leaned close and kissed her like she might break. He pulled back slightly seeking her eyes and permission. "Ted says I'd done something. He thinks I'm in trouble with you. I know I'm in trouble because I love you so badly it hurts sometimes, but I don't think I've done anything have I?"

She reached out to touch him, silently, running her hands lightly over his body, catching his ticklish sides and he flinched slightly, but held her eyes. "Yes, you've done all kinds of things, but we'll talk about that later. Right now I want you to kiss me Charlie. And not like I'm made out of glass. Kiss me like you mean it."

He never answered her with words. His lips lowered to hers again and he cupped her face beginning with a gentle kiss that became increasingly demanding. His hands slid into her hair and he pulled her closer, his hot tongue plunging deep into her mouth. He kissed her breathless. Her hands wound under his arms to encircle his waist, his stiff erection made keeping his towel in place difficult, so he released one hand to twist it away and fling it into the corner of the room. His arms returned to pull her against his chest as he continued his deep, slow, wet kiss with less cloth between them now.

When they broke, there was darkness, desire and want in his eyes, but he respected her desire to "talk" so he asked her again, "Did you wanna have that talk now?" She shook her head in the negative and reached down to stroke the length of him, when she looked up she was biting her lip and told him, "No talk Charlie, just be with me". There was no need for further discussion as he began to peel off the outer layer of her costume, that veneer that was Dani Reese, the Homicide Detective to reveal his Dani, the one only he knew.

She raced urgently to disrobe. He could feel the need, wildness and reckless abandon in her and it frightened him for a moment until he realized this was not the "out of control" Dani of old. She felt free enough to be completely with him and held nothing back. He forced her naked body onto the bed with his own and lay atop her lightly, his narrow hips between her legs as she wrapped them around him and urged him closer. He kissed the hollow of her throat and lavished attention on her breasts, before she once again wrapped her hand around his shaft and guided him to her.

"Dani," he gently tried to slow her, so he could invest some time in coaxing an orgasm from her before taking her for himself, "take it easy, honey." Again her head shook and her eyes were intense, dark and hooded. She bit first her bottom lip then his as her kisses became faster, rougher and bruising. He wanted to know what evoked this change. He wrenched his mouth from hers and held her down by the shoulders, asked seriously; "You want it this way, sweetheart?" She smiled devilishly and his reserve of self-control snapped. "Then hang on and see if you can keep up."

He slid an arm under her and raised her slight body, crushing it to his. He sank his teeth tightly against the strap muscle of her neck and sucked hard, raising the blood to the surface that would later reveal itself in an angry purple bruise. She raked her nails down his back as she arched into him and moaned, low and dangerously, "God, Charlie, I want you so bad, I was never supposed to want anyone this bad – not ever again."

"No one but me, Dani. You are mine, now and forever. You understand me? I never want you to even think about anyone else. I can give you what you want. I promise you I will do it or die trying." He roughly pulled her to him again with conviction and renewed vigor. Just as quickly he released her and as she sank back to the bed he wrapped his long fingers around her tiny skull, running his fingers along her scalp as he kissed her hard and forced her to beg for air, beg for him. "Tell me what you want sweetheart, I wanna hear you say it. Tell me what you want, Dani."

"You, always you Charlie, only you," she confessed.

He gave her what she asked for. Every inch of him wanted to be one with her and he held her still as he moved inside her. "Is this what you want?" She nodded, her eyes were dark and serious as she met him stroke for stroke. They moved in a silent rhythm never taking their eyes off each other. As he felt himself near the point he could no longer control his release, he spoke to her in low, urgent tones, "Come for me, Dani. I don't want to go there without you. I never wanna go anywhere without you."

He watched the tears well in her eyes as his simple words got through her want and spoke to her heart. She knew it was not just sex they were talking about. For Charlie it was forever, he slowed and stilled as she watched his face felt his body moving inside hers. "Come with me, Dani," he coaxed again more gently and bent to kiss her. A single tear escaped and rolled down her cheek as she clutched at him and he held her tightly. Gone was the punishing lover with the heated kisses, as he rolled them as one onto his back. "You can have anything you want, I'll give you the world, honey."

She put her hands in the center of his chest and pushed herself into a kneeling position astride him. "You already have, Charlie. You already have," but she said nothing further.

His thoughts again flickered to the little girl from his dreams and Dani in his bed at his side. He dared to think they could be a family; Dani, Charlie, the little dark haired girl, maybe a pale freckle faced son in years to come and Uncle Ted who lived over the garage. It was far from perfect, it was fractured, a bit raw and absolutely perfect for them both. But his train of thought vanished as she slowly began to grind against him in a maddeningly slow circle of need. He forced himself to grab fistfuls of the sheets as she drove him closer and closer to complete and utter loss of higher brain function. He reached down between them and his nimble fingers worked against the sensitive skin at their joining and she keened slightly as her orgasm surged within her.

He felt the shudder ripple though her and he again rolled them back and pinned her beneath him, as her moan drove him to finish the job. She bucked wildly against him and he grabbed her shoulders with such force he knew they would bear bruises from the tips of his strong fingers the next day. Stars edged at the corners of his consciousness as he emptied himself into her, giving his seed, heart and soul all at once and mumbling her name repeatedly as his conscious though faded.

Charlie had just enough energy left to roll off her before he fell asleep, but not wanting her that far away, he reached out to hold close what was his. He dragged both Dani and the coverlet over him. Hours or minutes later, he could never be sure which, he awoke sated and with her tanned body splayed across his chest. Her tiny hands were wrapped possessively around him and her legs tangled with his. Her gentle easy breath told him she slept. He thought about what had just occurred and how all their lovemaking was good, but never this intense. There would never be a better time to ask her than this moment.

Charlie made his choice and slid from under her, as he listened to her grumbling unhappiness at his departure. He smiled into her hair with a promise, "I'll be right back, baby." She managed a small grumble in reply, but relaxed her grip so he could slip away. He found his jacket on the floor by the bedside and removed the small blue box and inspected its content before quietly closing it and slipping back into bed.

Dani had turned away from him and was deeply asleep as he spooned behind her and buried his nose in the hair at the base of her neck. "Honey, wake up," his voice an octave lower than he intended. She rolled over and planted her nose along the middle line of his chest, overlying his sternum, and inhaled the smell of this man who could know her so completely. She knew she was beyond being "in love" with him. Her very soul was lost to him. Losing Charlie would probably kill her now. The need she felt for him, both sexually and emotionally was beyond simple want, she needed him on a level she could barely appreciate and the thought of being apart from him literally hurt her heart to consider.

But she wanted more rest and to avoid going where they had to go next, to the "talk" she'd promised.

"Dani, wake up," he said with the insistence of a seven year old on Christmas morning.

"Leave me alone, Crews," she rolled away from him. But she blinked awake as his hand ran gently over the dip of her waist to the arch of her hipbone and dove slowly to lay over her belly, where she knew he was aware their future grew inside her. She brought her hand to rest over his as he flexed the long fingers of his hand over their child. "How'd you know?" she wondered aloud.

"Fruit," he chuckled softly from behind her ear as his breath whispered across her cheek.

"That's so wrong," she laughed and he laughed – truly laughed for the first time since she'd known him.

"No, it's perfect," he grinned and she could feel his smile as he kissed her shoulder blade. "Only my child would make you want fruit, you know that," he said lightly. "What did the doctor say?"

"That the birth control I've been taking so religiously since I was fifteen is only 99% effective," she joked. "I told him I knew the one percent who defied the odds," she grinned up at him. "I told him you were force of nature, Crews. One of a kind and absolutely nothing could stop you, certainly not some little pill that works on almost everybody, because you are like no one else on Earth."

"You said all that?" he laughed again, his humor could not be contained on this day.

"I knew before I went to see the doctor. I just kept trying to find reasons not to believe what I already knew. He just confirmed it, gave me some vitamins and told me to look after myself," she said honestly, all hints of any reservation she might have had melted away with Charlie's obvious glee in the prospect of being a father. She would not, could not deny him this. Moreover, she found she didn't want to.

"Looking after you won't be a problem. That's my job, but I don't think I like you having a male doctor. Couldn't we find a nice lady doctor?" She laughed again. "At least tell me he's old and ugly?" He joked softly as he reached up to the headboard and retrieved the box and placed it on the bed before her.

"What's in the box, Charlie?" her tone sounded in warning. She didn't want to go there because of the baby, but in her head she knew he'd bought the ring before he could have possibly known.

"Our future. Open it," he urged.

"You don't have to…just because I'm….Charlie, you don't have to…" she tensed against him, flight or fight Dani's natural response, but one he knew they could overcome together.

"Hey," he tightened his grip on her, gently pulling on her shoulder until he could look into her eyes. He controlled them both with his tone, "Did any of what I said a few minutes ago get through to you? I don't want any future that doesn't include you." He met her eyes with his own calm, peace and contentment, which he tried to will to her.

She eased slightly, but made no effort to open the box, instead she looked curiously from him to the small box and back. Charlie grew impatient and reached for the box himself telling her, "Fine. I'll open it. I've been carrying it around for weeks now trying to catch you in a moment of weakness - to find a time when you'd say you'd be mine."

"I am yours, Charlie," she confided softly. "I don't need a ring to know that."

"Then humor me, I'm old fashioned," he joked, but the gravity of his tone was unmistakable. "Say you'll marry me….please honey, don't make me wait.. .you know how bad I am at waiting..." He continued until she placed her hand over his mouth. He then raised his eyebrows in question and she rolled her eyes.

"Okay, alright, fine…I'll marry you…now can we please stop talking about it," she feigned annoyance.

"Fine," he said, gathering her to his chest. "Nice of you to make me feel so secure about it, but I'll take you anyway I can get you." He felt her heart beat beginning to normalize and he kissed her temple gently, "My little demon, I love you in all your terrible tempers, glares, moods and looks."

"You'd better," she looked up at him. "I have a feeling you've just begun to see the moods."

"I'll be okay, I'm tougher than I look," he winked at her and was rewarded with a genuine smile in response.

Then he noticed her look away and again her seriousness returned. "What is it?" he probed.

"This…" she gestured towards their linked hands overlying her womb, "was not what I needed to talk to you about." Charlie looked dumbfounded, imagining that perhaps Ted was right after all, as she continued, "I mean it is this, but it isn't this…Jesus, listen to me I sound like you now." Charlie continued to stare at her but offered nothing. "I don't know how to have this conversation with you."

"Just tell me, honey. You know you can tell me anything," he offered cautiously. Her reluctance was causing him serious concern. What could be more difficult for Dani Reese, a woman with no link to any one man for more than a night, to have announced they were expecting a child and agree to be tethered to one man for the rest of her life? He wondered very hard, furrowing his brow and willing the answer from his reticent partner. He placed a knuckle under her chin and raised her eyes to his. "What is it, honey?"

"Crews, I've asked you not to do that….call me sweetheart, honey and did I just hear the word "baby" come out of your mouth?" she complained trying to avoid the talk that was coming.

"You did, you have and I won't stop it. I can't help it and you know that, so stop stalling," he was direct and in control in his response. "Tell me what is bothering you…honey," he said pointedly using the affectionate term he most favored. In truth he thought "baby" was simply a Freudian slip since the idea of their baby began to inhabit his thoughts of late. "Start with just one word," he coaxed.

"Rayborn," she said darkly, as if the word hurt her to say. Charlie's recoil was not something he could control or contain, it was immediate, dramatic and she felt it in the tensing of his entire body, as well as observing his features change and hardened. "See, that right there is why I don't want to have this talk," she gave voice to her fears.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. He tried to soften his expression and eyes, but it was forced and they both knew it. He nodded for her to continue and she carefully watched him as she spoke.

"He phoned me a couple weeks ago," she confessed. "Wanted to know if I understood what you would do for me, what my father had done for me and how valuable I was to them since I could be used to control you both." His eyes were stormy and great confusion, distress and flashes of fierce anger fought for control of his usually crystal clear blue eyes. "It terrified me," she added. "It still does, for exactly what I see here now," she brushed her hand past his brow and smoothed his forehead. "Not for me, but for you…Charlie, you can't let this control you," she counseled.

"There is always going to be danger for me, I'm a cop. It comes with the job." She spoke softly, softer than Charlie remembered her having the capacity for. "Then I saw what you did to that man, Washington, Charlie? And I know if you let them, they'll use me to get to you – but only if you let them. You have to not let them."

"Anyone tries to harm you I will kill them with my bare hands…slowly," his eyes glittered dangerously, hatred flaring within their depths. These were emotions the Charlie she knew did not have and she didn't want for him. She surpassed the point where it was simply enough to physically show him affection; she reached now for the words to tell him that she could not let him fall prey to his darker side – not to protect her, although she knew he would with his dying breath.

"I want you to promise me, swear to me, that you won't harm any of these people, Charlie. I want your solemn vow and it to mean as much as it will when I let you do this marriage thing that you want so bad. Because that's how badly I want to know that you won't let your anger, your rage and your obvious lethal skills, rob you of your control and take you away from me."

"You're lecturing me about anger?" he scoffed, somewhat incredulous that his little partner who went from zero to pissed off in less than six seconds was going to tell him to calm down and be at peace with this. "You want me to just stand by and let them threaten you, us, our family? It'll be a cold day in hell," he warned, his features serious and his look hard.

"Crews," she barked. "You will do this for me," she demanded, "you will make me this promise and you will keep it." Her dark eyes returned his hard glare and dared him to defy her. "Do you have any idea what it would do to me to know that I was the reason you went back to prison, or got yourself killed? Do you have any idea what I imagined Roman would do to you? How badly that scared me? And you are damned sure not leaving me and our baby here alone…. now you promise me Charlie, right fucking now."

He knew he was lost the moment she began, but he fought it, his pride and desire to protect her. But in the end, he had nowhere to go her gaze was so intense, so riveting. He simply surrendered and she could see it in his eyes when he did.

"Promise me, Charlie," she said softer and her heated look abated slightly. "Promise me you'll be here for us," she gestured toward their child. He nodded, but that was not sufficient for Dani. "I want you to say it out loud," she directed.

"I promise," he sounded a bit dejected and forlorn in his vow. Dani could see a stubborn little boy with red hair and bright blue eyes, looking into the floor whilst his mother made him apologize for something he clearly did not feel was his fault. She was unsure if the impression was of Charlie as a child or one of their offspring yet to come, but she smiled slightly at the notion.

"I don't know why we have these talks, you always get your way. Why don't you just tell me what to do?"

"Because you never listen to me, honey," she said a slight apology in her voice for having been so forceful.

Charlie head raised ever so slowly and his face bore a monstrous grin. "You just called me honey."

"I did not," she shot back, although she was fairly certain she had. At this point, disagreeing with him had become habit. Then she reasoned there was really no reason not to get married. They lived together, worked together and argued more than most married couples did anyway. She was deep in thought when Charlie changed the conversation back to happier interests for them both.

"So, tell me about our little girl," he smiled as her eyes widened. "When is she coming?"

"You don't know it's a girl, Charlie," she warned.

"Yes I do, honey. I dreamed it," he smiled in response.

Dani was speechless. She thought about their situation and considered the idea. _What can you say to that really? _The power of dreams can be so real that they alone can provide the impetus to bring them to fruition, the genesis of a self- fulfilling prophesy. Charlie had long ago so amazed her with his prescience that she often took it for granted. She felt sometimes that he could will things to happen and then they did. Stranger things had happened.

For instance, if anyone had told her three years ago after coming out of rehab, she'd be partnered with a man who did twelve years in prison for murders he did not commit – placed there by her father and some well placed LAPD mafia types; that he'd earn her respect and give her his; that he'd restore in her the faith she'd thought was lost forever and voluntarily offer his life in trade for hers, she'd have told them they were insane. If they had gone a short six months further and predicted she'd become pregnant with his child and agree to marry him, she'd have told them the Brooklyn Bridge was an easier sell. So, she shrugged and accepted they were having a little girl because that's what Charlie believed.

"Did this little girl in your dream have a name?" she asked with a grin, "cause that would save a lot of time looking for one." Her cheeky reply earning her a raised eyebrow and 'tsk, tsk' from her mate.

"Skeptic, unbeliever…." He joked, thinking for a moment before offering, "I'm kinda partial to Sarah," as though this happened to them every day, "or Grace."

"I'm not sure any child of mine should have the name Grace," she kidded and was rewarded by a heartfelt laugh deep from within Charlie's chest.

"Just because she looks like you doesn't mean she won't have my charm and good humor," he joked.

"Who told you that you were charming? Cause it certainly wasn't me?" she shot back good-naturedly.

"Your mom thinks I'm charming, I'll bet," he nuzzled her throat his five o'clock shadow tickling her.

"Uh…no," she laughed.

He drew back and looked her in the eyes, his blue returning like a clear sky after a rain, "Really?" Dani rolled her eyes. "Hmmm… lucky for me, you're wild about me," he pronounced confidently.

"Who told you that?" She said coyly.

"You do, every single time we are together. You say the most amazing things about me," he murmured against her throat and jaw line.

"Things that if you ever repeat – to anyone – I will deny," she grinned as she turned away from him to let him kiss her neck again, enjoying the feel and smell of him, his warmth and rough palms over her smooth skin, scratchy beard against her face as she thought about the evening's events.

"Charlie?" she inquired thoughtfully, "what if it's not a little girl?" her hesitancy real and he could sense her fears.

He rolled over until he again lay between her legs and offered in a low tone, kissing his way up her stomach, "Then we'll - just - have - to – keep - trying," punctuating his words with kisses, ending as he buried his head in her neck and softly kissed the site of his earlier brutal suckling. "This time, how about we do this my way?" he urged as his hand dragged down her side to hold her still as he began to do very wicked things to her with his tongue. She laughed and they began anew.

"Hey," she redirected his attention, "but after this…we have to eat. I'm seriously starving Charlie," she complained.

"Or Sarah is…" he smiled. "Lucky for you, I stopped at the market and got more fruit," his eyes twinkled at their inside joke. Charlie knew his future would include only the best for his wife and his children. He was determined neither of his girls would ever fear anyone again (LAPD or otherwise); in his mind he began to plan exactly how he would ensure this and keep his promise to Dani.


	21. Chapter 21 Serial Monogamy

**Serial Monogamy**

Everett Washington was a serial rapist, perhaps even a serial killer. That wasn't even his real name, it was taken from his last hunting ground; a city with a name so cool, he'd borrowed it. In the six weeks that followed Washington's arrest, they'd learned a lot - though not from him. The man himself said nothing, even to his court appointed lawyer. But his apartment held a treasure trove of souvenirs from his conquests. Forensics drooled over the panties, jewelry and personal effects of ten girls who were being matched to missing persons up and down the I-5 corridor. The state police were brought in and a group of uniformed officers from the Washington State Police drove down with a list of possible victims from his last hunting ground.

Eventually the FBI swept in to take credit for everyone else's hard work, earning them the eternal enmity of Detective Dani Reese. Charlie never much cared for, or trusted, the FBI to begin with. But everyone in the squad room knew who broke the case - Crews and Reese. As the FBI made their press release on the television, thanking a bunch of people in public offices or political appointees who had nothing to do with the arrest of the man now cooling his heels in County, Dani tersely told Crews, "turn it off." She wasn't tall enough to reach the mounted TV herself and no one could ever find the remote in the squad room. It chaffed her that "they" took away their case.

It took the better part of eight weeks for the official charges to be filed and still Washington (or whatever his real name was because no one was entirely sure) said nothing. Finally, twelve weeks post arrest, he asked to talk, but not to CBI, not to the Washington State Police and not to the FBI. He wanted to talk to Dani Reese – alone. This made Charlie incredibly uncomfortable. In point of fact he hated the idea and he told her so.

"I don't want you in there alone with him," he growled.

"Do you trust me?" she asked. He scowled at her, but nodded.

"Then trust me." He grimaced but didn't push it any farther.

He stood balanced on the balls of his feet outside the interview room with his hand on the door handle, while his pregnant soon to be wife sat inches from a serial murderer and sexual sadist. And he hated every minute of it.

They had not told anyone beyond Ted about the baby, but soon they would be forced to. It made Charlie even more protective of her and they'd had serious words about her being alone in that room with Washington.

"He'll be cuffed and restrained," she reasoned.

"I don't like it. I want to be there with you," he argued.

"You are with me, Crews. All the time, I feel you there with me," she shot back smiling softly.

"I meant…" he started.

She put her finger to his lips, "I know what you meant."

She turned on her heel and walked away from him. He alternately clenched and released his fists in frustration.

The interview room at County was arranged differently, so Charlie and Kevin Tidwell were in an adjoining room separated from the interview room by a one-way mirrored glass window and a flimsy door. The darkened room they occupied was lit only by the flickering black and white monitors and the blue glow of digital numbers on the video recorder capturing the interview for posterity.

Washington oozed charm, smiling broadly as they cuffed him to the table. The escorts left and closed the door behind them, leaving Dani alone with two chairs, a table bolted to the floor, one closed circuit camera perched high in the corner of the room and a serial killer.

She'd deliberately brought nothing with her he could use as a weapon were he to pull a Houdini and get loose somehow. Her concession to Charlie; he alone would watch and protect her. Her service pistol, cuffs and keys were all locked in her desk. She didn't even bring a pen because the interview was being videotaped and she didn't need to take notes.

Charlie felt unusually nervous. He knew Dani could handle the guy, but he felt like he could see his unborn child peeking out from under the loose blouse she wore and he wanted both his girls out of that room.

"Detective, how nice to see you again," Washington began. Smiling, "I see you got all dressed up for me."

Dani did not sit; instead she remained standing and glared at him. "You asked to talk, so talk."

"Oh come on, is that anyway to treat me? I've made you famous sweetheart."

Charlie frowned furiously at the man's use of one of the word "sweetheart".

Then Washington got worse. "Come over here where I can smell you? I've been locked up a long time with no female companionship. Give a guy a taste won't you, baby?" Dani's teeth were clenched, but she smiled through it, ever the professional.

Tidwell watch her tall red haired partner closely, sensing the man's unease. Tidwell gestured calm with his hand, "Easy man. She's got this Crews, relax." the Captain coached.

Charlie thought his teeth might break his jaw was clenched so tight. He ground his teeth together in frustration and silently twisted the doorknob to make sure it was open and he could be by her side in an instant.

"Your boyfriend's not here this time. So how about I tell you what I want to do to you if you'd take these cuffs off me for five minutes," he sneered at her, pulling on the chains and laughing. Dani did not correct Washington about her relationship with Crews as it took them into her personal life – a place she held sacred, but she knew the effect the comment would have on her partner.

She turned away from Washington and looked through the window at Charlie. He froze. There was no way she could see him, but she knew he was there and she looked right at him. She closed her eyes for a moment and he watched her inhale and slowly exhaling deliberately, as he unconsciously mirrored her deliberate breath. She fingered the cross at her throat, opened her eyes and smiled at him - his smile - the one she showed to no one else. She did feel him, she knew he was there; she spoke to him with no words telling him this. He released the doorknob and stepped back.

Tidwell watched the exchange and appreciated the connection they shared; one he'd never had with the little dark haired Detective. "Dude, she so owns you," he commented spitefully.

Charlie knew this, but he wanted to tell the Captain "_don't be a sore loser" _or_ "don't go away mad - just go away_" or anyone of the half dozens smart-assed Dani Reese comments that leapt to mind, but he didn't. Charlie didn't respond at all.

Tidwell was a gadfly, an annoyance, the danger sat still and quiet across the table from Dani and Charlie wasn't going to miss his non-verbals this time. Charlie's gun was not locked up; it sat squarely on his right hip, already cocked and locked with the snap of his holster undone. If Washington moved, or even so much as looked funny, Charlie had already decided he was using the pistol on his hip and putting two rounds into the man's chest. But he didn't want that, he wanted to control this situation and himself.

He wanted to let Dani know he trusted her and she could trust him, but he felt like Jacob wrestling that angel.

Dani sat down across from Washington and folded her hands in front of her. She looked down at them for a long moment and then lifted her head and stared at the serial sexual sadist in front of her. Her gaze was clean and clear, her face wore just a hint of a smile. She spoke so low the microphone in the room could not pickup the sound.

Her words were only for Washington, "No, he's not here and for that you are lucky. Cause maybe next time I won't stop him. Maybe next time I let him choke the life out of you the way you did Samantha Akers and I watch because maybe - I like it." She toyed with him.

"I can't pick her up, Crews," Tidwell complained. Washington's head cocked at an odd angle and though Charlie didn't know what she'd said, he got the distinct impression that she'd definitely got the cocky bastard's full attention.

"You like hurting women don't you?" her voice now audible. "Tell me why," she demanded.

And he did. Hours later, she emerged from the room. Washington had given not one detail about any of his crimes, but he had told her loads about his childhood, his motivation, his anger about and hatred of women. Like most narcissists all she really had to do was ask him about his favorite subject – himself – and he did the rest. He was smart, careful to never admit to actually raping or killing anyone. He talked in hypothetical situations, shared sick, twisted fantasies and intimated details of the dark world he loved and lived in. He even got tantalizingly close to a couple of active inquiries they were looking to link him to, but stopped short of any actual confession.

Dani emerged, after the guard took Washington away, looking drained.

"You okay?" Charlie asked softly, taking her by the elbow and steering her into an alcove.

"Yeah, I'm just tired. Take me home?" she asked her partner.

"Yeah, sure," he said pulling her close. Right there inside County lock up with a thousand prying eyes, he wrapped his arms tightly around her, hugged her to his chest and kissed her on the forehead. And she let him.

"I want a long, hot shower and then I wanna sleep for a week," she grumbled against his chest.

"You did great, honey, just great," he told her.

People rarely realized how tiring the simple act of sitting in an interview with a cold-blooded murderer could be. The mental gymnastics of keeping focused on, yet one step ahead of the offender was exhausting. Four hours in the box was more tiring than running eight miles Dani would later tell him. Her interview with Washington went six and a half. She was beyond tired; she was dead on her feet. He wanted to carry her to the car, but he didn't try, knowing she'd probably kill him for it later. He did carry her upstairs to bed, after she'd fallen asleep in the car on the way home.

Charlie never asked her what she said early on – the part they couldn't hear, but the flicker of Washington's eyes to the one-way glass let him know she spoke of him to the self-assured man. He gently undressed her and put her to bed, promising a shower later when she awoke. He then sat and watched her sleep, knowing what no one else did; that this tiny woman, carrying his child was quite possibly the toughest, most disciplined person he'd ever met. She was the whole world to him and she was the only thing he feared losing.

The local Bureau Field Office would later say the interview was worthless, as Washington had confessed to none of the crimes, but it didn't matter to Dani or Charlie, because in the end Washington would spend the rest of his natural life in prison. They'd won this one.

* * *

Late one afternoon, about two weeks later, Dani received a call from a Special Agent with the Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico. He was young and sounded excited. He told her how her exploration of motive was very useful and they were studying the tape for cues to other serial sexual offenders and when she hung up she just stared at the phone.

"What?" Charlie asked. She recounted the phone call and they both smiled.

Motive was something that interested them both. Apparently, it interested others too. Forensics would put Washington away for a long time, but understanding was important to them both. It was something they both craved; knowing the "why". Forensics could tell you who, what, where and sometimes even the "how." But nothing could give you the 'why' except the bad guy.

When they asked Tidwell for the day to drive to Simi Valley and explain what they'd learned to Samantha's parents, he gave it to them begrudgingly. It would not bring Samantha back, but it might let her parents go forward and that was something worth doing.

* * *

They left on a Thursday night for the drive down and met with the Akers fresh on Friday morning. When the draining discussion was over, there were more tears and they were both tired again. They stayed overnight not wanting to fight LA traffic on the 405 on a Friday night. The following morning, when they drove out, Charlie headed east and into the mountains.

Her bad mornings were subsiding, which left them with another problem - her growing middle, which would soon be hard to ignore. Charlie noticed this as he wrapped his arms around her each night and put his hands over where their unborn child slept, growing quietly through her second trimester. He could feel the baby now and he was determined to get Dani off the streets and wearing a new last name – now, this weekend, today, if possible.

"Uh…you mind telling me where we're going?" she asked good-naturedly. Charlie just grinned at her.

"Hey, Mister Directionally Challenged, home is that way," she thumbed behind them as the sped east.

"We're not going home," he pronounced solidly. "We are going to Tahoe."

"Isn't it a little early for ski season?" she said, looking at her watch. "I don't think they expect snow for about six months." She was in an unexpectedly good mood and it showed. She glowed and Charlie thought that only happened in sappy movies.

"Tahoe's in Nevada," he said.

"Yeah, so?"

"So… we can get married there," he pulled down his sunglasses and dared her to tell him no.

She didn't say no, but she rolled her eyes and groaned dramatically. "It's a beautiful weekend, I was going to lay by the pool, get some sun. Come on Crews, give me a break."

"This won't take long, but it won't wait either," his hand drifted to her belly. "This is not going to be something we can keep under wraps much longer."

"But they'll take me out of rotation and make me ride a desk," she complained.

"What are you going to do – just tell people you stopped going to the gym? Honey, you and I are having a baby, in like, " he looked down at his watch, "about 100 days?"

"You're counting the days?" she asked clearly impressed.

He pulled up in front of a small convenience store and put the car in park. He turned and looked at her. "Yes, I'm counting days. I don't like you being in the rotation. I didn't like you being in the room with Washington, but I've been patient and now I want to get married…." he finished smiling and added "And you promised me, dammit," he added playfully.

She just looked at him, so he continued his sales pitch, "I want to be able to tell people. I want to buy baby toys, put together a crib, decorate a nursery, take my wife to dinner and go with her to the doctor, but most of all I want to protect you and love you for the rest of my life. Would you just let me do that, Dani?"

"Fine," she said.

"Great," he jumped at her response and put the car back in gear.

"Charlie," she stayed his hand, and for a minute he thought she'd changed her mind. "Just go in there and get me some of those little white powdered donuts and some chocolate milk, before we go. I'm hungry."

"Anything you say, honey," he leaned across and kissed her soundly.

* * *

They returned to work Monday morning, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Crews, but Dani made Charlie promise he'd not tell a soul until she was ready. She worried about telling her parents. Charlie wisely elected not to share the conversation he'd had with Roya Reese several months prior. She also made Charlie promise not to tell anyone about the baby. Control was so very important to her. He knew 'control' to be an illusion, but he let her have whatever she wanted.

He also understood the effect his protective hovering had on her; it unnerved her. He had to suppress the desire to follow her everywhere she went now just to keep her safe. It would have been something Washington would have done and it kinda creeped him out. The fine line between protectiveness and possessiveness was so hard to walk sometimes.

Dani left to pick up some things at her place, which was now in effect an empty apartment she paid rent on. They'd had the discussion about moving her things to the mansion, but she wasn't ready to give up her place yet. Baby steps, Charlie realized. She ate, worked and slept with him and if he relaxed she would let go of her place on her own. If he pushed, she'd run back there and dig in. So he waited, anxiously, for her to return.

Minutes after Dani left her place on the way back to work, she felt her phone vibrate against her side. She knew it was Crews checking on her. She sighed heavily and answered it midway through the conversation, "I'll be back there in ten minutes," she said, sounding mildly annoyed.

"Trouble in paradise already, doll." Rayborn's voice slid down the phone.

"What do you want Rayborn?"

"To know if you'd considered my offer, of course," he laughed. "Now that the two of you have gone and made it official and all." If she'd ever wondered how far and deep Rayborn's connections went, she now knew. He knew about her union with Charlie before they'd told anyone. Only the Justice of the Peace and two random witnesses in a small chapel in Tahoe were present for their weekend nuptials and already Rayborn knew.

"How about you bite me Rayborn?" she smarted back.

"Ah, honey…I was really wishing you were smarter than that," he chided amiably, as though her turn down was expected. "Can I offer you something in the way of an enticement?"

"You mean more than the $50 million my partner has now?"

"You mean your husband - don't you, Dani?"

"You know what, I'm tired of this crap, what makes Crews so god damned valuable to you anyway? It isn't like you don't have half the force in your pocket. Why can't you just leave us alone?" She said, hormones making her far more angry and emotional than she wanted to be.

"Crews is special, so are you, dear," he offered in response. "And because you are so very special, I'm going to give you something I usually don't give."

"Uh, yeah. What's that?" she countered.

"Time my dear Dani, I'm going to give you time. How much time? Oh, let's see….how about until that baby is born?" Dani was speechless. "Yes, my dear, we know everything about you two. Consider my offer carefully, Dani. Not saying yes could put more than you and Crews in danger now." He ended the call and her tears came. Try as she may she couldn't stop them.

It was as if Rayborn cut right through their little bubble of happiness and grabbed them by the throat. He was choking the life out of them as surely as Everett Washington had Samantha Akers. She had to find a way to stop him – one that did not involve Charlie going back to prison. She cried for the entire ten minutes it took to get back to the station and then composed herself in the parking lot and went inside.

If she thought she could keep anything from Crews, she was wrong. He read her look from the moment she got off the elevator. He rose immediately and headed straight for her. She bit her lip and let him steer her into the stairwell.

"You've been crying. What's wrong?" He was beside himself with concern.

She held up her phone and said "Rayborn." Charlie's look turned decidedly dark. He took the phone from her and redialed the man.

"Why Detective Crews….what a surprise hearing from you," Rayborn cajoled.

"If you ever call, my… Dani again, I will find you and kill you in front of God and everyone on national television," he threatened. "You want me Rayborn, you come get me, but you leave her alone." Then he hung up without letting the man respond.

"Charlie, you promised," she talked through her returning tears.

"I know, honey, I know," he placated her. "I just need him to back off, until I can think of a way to deal with him," he explained.

"Something that doesn't involve you going back to prison," she demanded.

"Yes, honey," he promised again. "I won't do anything like that. I just don't want him to know I won't." He kissed her gently, held her close and began devising a plan, one that kept his promise but dealt with Mickey Rayborn once and for all.


	22. Chapter 22 The Deal

**The Deal**

It took Charlie about three weeks to examine his limited options and sort through the pitfalls of each. It took him another week to decide on a course of action – one he didn't like and didn't trust, but had no real choice about. He was determined to keep his promise to Dani and that left him with the uneasy and risky prospect of trusting other people.

Charlie's life taught him most people were not deserving of his trust, but his plan called for only a tiny favor from one man and a leap of faith from another. It hinged on the idea that Jack Reese wanted out from under the thumb of Mickey Rayborn as much as he – but lacked the guts to take the chance. Charlie had no choice; he refused to live under threats from Rayborn to him or his family. Jack was nearing the point in life where he had less to lose and Charlie had to take his chances. It was a risk, but one Charlie had to take.

However, his first call was the least palatable part of the whole adventure because he still tried very hard not to think about the time when Tidwell occupied any portion of Dani's life outside work. It was in the past, a past he did not want to think about, because he couldn't change it. The idea of Dani with Tidwell set his teeth on edge like when you chewed on aluminum foil. It left a bitter taste in his mouth; but for her, for them, he swallowed his pride and went somewhere he never imagined himself going.

Kevin Tidwell's phone rang at an unusual time of night and the caller was one he hadn't heard from, other than professionally, for some months. He let it ring three more times before deciding on a tack and answering it lightly, "Hey babe, finally decide you missed your Irish lover?" There was a distinct silence on the other end of the line and he swallowed hard realizing it probably wasn't the best way to start a conversation with his former, very hot, love interest.

"Dani?" he said quickly, "You know how sometimes I just say dumb stuff? Well, this would be one of those times," he offered in apology. There was another shorter silence before he heard the distinct sound of a man clearing his throat and Charlie Crews' clipped tone come on the line.

"This isn't Dani," Charlie's stern voice advised.

"No shit, Crews."

"We need to talk, outside work, about something you and I both clearly care about. Meet me at Murphy's on 5th, and come alone," Crews demanded. "It's about a block from your apartment, you should be here in five minutes."

"Hey, wait just a god damned minute, it's like 10 o'clock at night. What the hell's this about, Crews?" Tidwell argued, but he found himself talking to empty air. Crews terminated the call just as soon as he'd said his piece. Tidwell clearly had a choice. He could elect not to go, but Crews called from Dani's phone – that meant something and the cop in him just had to know what.

Crews was positioned in the far back booth, his back to the wall, sipping a Corona when Tidwell came in. Crews saw him immediately and was once again amazed at how the man always seemed to appear disheveled and confused. Tidwell's eyes scanned the bar and Charlie waited until they settled on him to nod. No matter how personally repulsive he found the idea of Kevin Tidwell putting his hands on Dani he believed the affection felt for Reese was real and Charlie needed him for what came next.

Tidwell surveyed the bar, but had no trouble locating his most curious detective, for despite the darkness of the bar, Crews' red hair shone in the light betraying his concealed choice of seats. The Captain slid into the booth facing Crews and offered "Okay, you got me here now what?"

Crews eyed him skeptically for a beat and then began to speak, whilst patiently trimming the beads of sweat from his beer bottle with his finger. "I think differently than Reese. I think you did care about her, that you still do and that's why you are here. Do you? Still care about Dani, Captain?" Crews questioned, raising his eyes to meet the other man's as he finished.

"Shit, I don't know….maybe…yes, okay, yes," he stammered, "I care about her, Crews." His eyes became hard as his pain rose to the surface, "But she doesn't care for me anymore, if I'm not mistaken Detective, that fine piece of …." He didn't finish as Charlie tensed at his characterization of his partner. "Well, she belongs to you now doesn't she Crews?"

Charlie nodded, but said nothing, returning to his studious examination of his beer bottle as the waitress wandered by and Tidwell ordered a draft. "What am I doing here Crews?"

"Do you have a family, Captain?" Charlie asked him squarely.

"Yeah, sure. Couple ex-wives, kids, the folks back east, sure," the man offered easily.

"Well I never did. Have a family that is. Until now." He paused and let what he'd said sink in. The waitress returned with Tidwell's beer and he pieced the fragments together.

"You mean Dani?" Tidwell asked. "Look, a little friendly advice, Crews. Dani's not good at commitment, she's a runner, she doesn't want to get serious. I know you must have heard, but the minute you get too close, she's gone man. She's in the wind." He gestured with his free hand knowingly and winked at Charlie.

Charlie's face became blank first, then he smiled. 'She's pregnant and we got married last month in Tahoe." Tidwell nearly choked on his beer, giving Charlie a small measure of satisfaction. "And…if you ever talk about her that way to anyone else, or say it to me again - I will beat you to within an inch of your life," the threat was sincere and there was hate in Crews eyes, but the smile never left his face. "Now, laugh like I've said something funny, Captain."

"Fuck you, Crews," Tidwell smarted back, but shock registered on the man's face. "Tell me what I'm doing here or I'm walking right now."

"Do you know Mickey Rayborn?" Tidwell paled and drank his beer. "I'll take that as a yes. Rayborn has threatened my family, threatened Dani – but she's made me swear that I won't lay a hand on him," Crews explained.

"So you want me to? No fucking way man. She's hot and all that, but I'm in serious shit back east. This gig is supposed to make us even." Tidwell explained a lot in those few sentences about how he'd become their Captain and what sins he labored under. Tidwell was like a drug snitch working off. He could not be trusted or relied upon, but Charlie didn't need him for much so he took the chance.

"Do you ever even question what they want you to do for them? The why of it?" Crews asked him sincerely.

"Well, they've damned sure never asked me to kill anyone for them?" Tidwell scoffed.

"Neither am I." Charlie told him plainly, "Rayborn has a man – Finn. You know him?" Tidwell nodded. "I need him to be detained for a few hours on Tuesday night. That's all. Can you do that Captain? Can you do that for Dani?"

"Sure Crews, but what's your plan? What are you going to do?" Tidwell asked his interest keen.

"Me? I'm not going to do anything," Charlie finished cryptically, slid from the booth and dropped a twenty on the table. "Tuesday night between 6 and 8 PM, Finn needs to be somewhere else."

"I got it," Tidwell said now annoyed. "Wait, where are you going? Are we done here?"

"Captain there never was a 'we'. We were never here, this never happened. I went out to get some ice cream for my pregnant wife and you are home in bed." Charlie turned on his heel and left with one more stop to make – to get the actual ice cream "Black Chocolate Cherry" which he'd tell Dani was so incredibly hard to find.

_One down, one to go - before Mickey Rayborn got what was coming to him, _he thought_._ The next part was the tougher one, but it would end up being easier than he could possibly imagine.

* * *

"Hello, Jack," Charlie said, stepping from behind a tree in a bright public park. Both men were hidden behind the strong eye armor of shades; Crews wearing his trademark tortoise shell sienna lens and Jack the more traditional Ray-Ban polarized type that Dani had favored, until he bought her nicer ones. Their stiff body postures spoke of their mutual distrust and dislike. Charlie took a deep cleansing breath and remembered what brought him here – Dani and Sarah. In his mind he'd already decided that would be her name.

Dani seemed mildly annoyed when he talked to their unborn baby, using her name, but she tolerated it reasonably well. Dani tolerated a lot from him, he realized. But what she would not tolerate was him breaking his promise and betraying her trust. So he had to be inventive in removing the threat to his family, that meant thinking outside the proverbial box and taking risks, like the one he was taking now.

"Tell me you didn't invite me here to have a staring contest, Crews," Reese remarked snidely at Charlie's silence.

"I need your help," Charlie said coolly.

Jack Reese laughed hard, "it'll be a cold day in hell before I'd help you with anything Crews." He turned to leave, but Charlie stopped him with two words.

"Dani's pregnant."

Reese wheeled and closed on Crews like he was going to strike him hard, but he did not. He got close enough that Charlie could feel the spit from the man's breath as his words left his mouth, "You bastard. I told you to leave her out of this and you just couldn't, could you. You want a piece of me, Crews? Be a man, step up, but my daughter? How could you?"

"I love her," Charlie said plainly and that was when Jack hit him. It was not a surprise that Reese struck him, it was however surprising how much force the older man could summon. His upper cut ripped deep into Charlie's solar plexus and he grunted as the air rushed from his lungs. His chest burned and his eyes watered, but Charlie stayed on his feet.

"I deserved that and because you love her I will let you have that one," he responded as soon as he could draw breath again. "But you do that again and I won't just stand there and let you," Charlie removed his sunglasses and his blue eyes glittered in the harsh sun. "I do love her, it's not some kind of a trick. I would never do that to her."

Jack Reese acted like Charlie's words were a slap in the face, he shook his head vigorously trying to clear it like the man in front of him and the words he said were all a bad dream that could be chased away. Finally, after a long silence and a lot of staring he asked, "What is it you want Crews?"

Charlie knew, when Jack asked, that he'd won the battle. The rest would be easier, but he still let out a ragged sigh before beginning. "I love your daughter. We got married this last month in Tahoe, but she's not ready to tell anyone yet. She'll tell you – on her own, when she's ready and you'll pretend like you're happy even if you're not. You owe her that. And I'm going to marry her again in big public thing, make it official, after the baby is born, if she'll let me."

Jack's eyes narrowed, but Charlie continued, "I know you love her too. I know that Rayborn used that love to control you all these years." Reese eased and nodded for Charlie to continue.

"Rayborn called Dani last month – to talk to her alone, without me. He threatened to use her to control me. Same way he's controlled you. She's terrified, pissed off and pregnant. She made me swear that I won't touch him." He recounted the oath she'd wrung from him. "She knows I'll want to, but she also knows I won't break my word to her – so as you can see Rayborn is right – she does control me."

"What do you want from me?" Reese asked him cautiously.

"Rayborn drinks a lot, he has a balcony in that penthouse, and he trusts you. If you were to be there when he fell, decorated LAPD SWAT Captain and all - no one would question that. It would make life easier for us both don't you think?" Charlie laid out his plan succinctly.

"He's got a man, Finn. He's always there," Jack offered, not balking at the idea, just the mechanics. Charlie realized by how fast Jack got on board it was an idea he could get behind and he would welcome escaping the grasp of Rayborn.

"Tuesday night between 6 and 8 PM, Finn will be unavoidably detained," Charlie divulged.

"So I stop by for a drink with an old friend and help him over his balcony, just like that," Jack delivered the plan's simple nature in a single sentence.

"Yep," Charlie popped in response.

"You know there are others…" Jack offered that the noose could tighten on them again.

"I can't fight what I can't see," Charlie told the man. "If something else comes up, I'll deal with it then. Rayborn for some inexplicable reason seems to be fixated on me. With him gone, maybe the rest will see I'm not worth the effort."

"You honestly don't know…" Jack was shocked.

"Don't know what?" Charlie stared at him blankly.

"Why Rayborn wants you?" he was incredulous that Crews didn't know.

"No," he said and reaffixed his shades. He spoke to the man from his heart with absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain. "I don't know, don't care to know and if you know - don't tell me. Everyone has secrets Jack. You, me, Dani…. We've all done things we're not proud of. I'm through with secrets and conspiracies and the why's of the past. That life is gone, just like the man I was before I went to prison. I have a future now and it looks pretty good. I'm done with this, I just want to live in peace with my wife, raise a couple nice kids and be a family. It's all I've ever really wanted."

"OK, Crews," Jack said and stuck out his hand. "But don't you run off with my daughter and grandbaby, I want to be there. I want to walk her down the aisle and play with my grandkids. I was a shitty father to Dani, but I know I can do better. I want to."

"That's between you and Dani, Jack. I would not get in the middle of that for all the gold in Fort Knox."

"Thought you owned Fort Knox, Crews" Jack joked wryly. Charlie was struck by the impression that Jack Reese and he could have been friends but for they fact the man put him in prison for all those years. He was dry and witty and tough, Charlie found himself respecting the protectiveness he felt coming from the older man, but he'd never truly trust him and nor would Dani, he knew.

"I'm late, I have to meet Dani for lunch," Charlie said turning to leave.

"Boy or girl?" Jack called after him, "My grandbaby? Boy or a girl?"

"A girl, we call her Sarah," Charlie smiled in response. "With any luck, she'll look like her mom," he shot back brightly.

Jack Reese grabbed his arm, pulled him close and lowered his voice speaking in a very seriously tone, "You better take good care of my daughter, Crews. You hurt her and there won't be any fall from a building in your future, I will beat you to death with my bare hands and enjoy it," Jack said with a tight smile.

"Not gonna happen. No one will ever hurt her, not as long as I live," Charlie promised. "Especially not me."


	23. Chapter 23 The End

**The End**

They were forced to divulge Dani's pregnancy and their marriage by her sixth month because it was impossible to ignore her physical changes. Dani would have preferred to not say until they had to explain the presence of Sarah to register her in first grade. It was a conscious ignorance that amused Charlie, but in the end the much-anticipated disclosure went quite well with her parents. The fact that this was primarily due Charlie's pronouncement to Roya months earlier and his tense discussion with Jack over a week ago, did not keep him from smiling so much that day it hurt his face. Dani was happy and her parents at least acted like they were.

At work things were taken in stride as many of the people close to the Detectives had picked up on their closeness long ago. It was also made less problematic since Charlie elected to graciously take a leave of absence while his wife rode a desk in the Detective division. He didn't want another partner. He wanted to be ready for Sarah's arrival, he told Dani, but in truth Charlie really wasn't sure that he wanted either of them hunting murderers and rapists anymore. He was taking time to center himself and considering the thought of leaving law enforcement entirely. He knew talking Dani out of it might prove harder than moving a mountain, but he was giving it serious thought – and meanwhile busying himself by assembling furniture for the nursery.

Charlie bought more furniture for the nursery than they had for the rest of the house, Dani frequently joked with her husband. There was a large sturdy wooden changing table, a beautifully wrought hand made rocking chair and a rocking horse the baby was months perhaps years away from riding. The room was decorated with ponies, which while Dani never quite figured out, she just laughed at. And while she also teased Charlie about the rocking horse he'd often catch her running her hands over the smooth finished wood horse and tangling her fingers in its mop topped mane when she thought he wasn't looking. He was currently fighting with a crib that was vexing him, but which he stubbornly refused even Ted's offers of help on. He told her it was a problem he needed to work through. She smiled knowingly and chocked it up to one part Zen and one part male pride.

Despite Dani's dark threats, she tolerated desk duty reasonably well and Tidwell was extremely protective of her at work. They had made peace with their past, 'so it wouldn't screw up their future' as Charlie was fond of saying. And Tidwell was now her self appointed protector at work. Even Charlie tolerated it, which she found somewhat strange. The Captain steadfastly refused to let her work late, sending her home the minute her day reached eight hours and refusing to let her carry cases to her car. Instead he dutifully toted the box of cold cases she was reviewing for leads to the parking garage, against her protests and set the box in the passenger side of the Masserati.

"You really like this car, huh?"

"It's so fast," she responded with a devilish grin.

"You're about to be someone's mom," he teased, "you need to give up fast and go for safe."

Dani seemed to give his comment a bit more introspection than he intended. "Hey, Dani," he said shyly, "You know Crews will never let anyone hurt you. And neither would I. You know that right?"

"Yeah, I know that," she said cautiously. "Why? What is he up to?"

"Crews? How would I know? Guy's your husband," he stammered, "who's probably wondering where you are so…" He hugged her, surprising her and confessed. "You know I hated that you left me, for him, but I can see now that he's good for you. You are different with him. Balanced, happy, content – I'm happy for you Dani."

"Me too," she admitted. "I'm surprised that he found me. We just seem to fit. But we aren't exactly the best examples of how to live your life you know?"

"Yeah, but just think…as your kids grow up," he teased, "There's probably nothing they'll get into the two of you haven't done."

"What kids? One – one kid, this kid," she gestured at her swollen belly.

Tidwell laughed, "Crews says he wants like five kids." She scowled at him and the thought of five kids.

"That's your call, babe," he coached and kissed her lightly on the forehead, "now go home before that maniac comes looking for me."

She didn't comment on his use of the term 'babe', no longer threatened by his affectionate terms. She was secure in the fact that her freckle faced; red haired husband knew all her secret names and places. She let Tidwell have his illusions that they were still close. She didn't trust the man, but she had to work with him. "I wouldn't worry about Charlie. He's on day three of assembling that crib and is probably buried under a mountain of wooden slats right now."

"I'd pay money to see that," Tidwell laughed walking back to his office. He checked his watch. "But Tidwell has other plans tonight," he talked to himself. "Places to go and people to see…"

* * *

The following day, Dani Reese drove straight home when she heard the news and attacked the front door like it was an 18th century fort, snatching it nearly off its hinges. What she heard coming from the kitchen made her day darken even further. There was a distinct slapping sound and then a woman's giggle emanating from the kitchen. She stopped for a moment as tears welled and she nearly began to cry right then, damning her hormones and Charlie Crews both under her breath.

"Charlie, if you have a girl in there, I swear on everything holy, I'm going to slit your throat with a dull kitchen knife," she continued. Her intent was to stride purposefully into whatever was going on in her kitchen, but her gait was more influenced by their unborn daughter than she'd care to admit and that only served to further anger her.

"Try it again, higher," a distinctly Spanish sounding woman said clearly.

"I'm gonna kill him," Dani cursed louder and entered the open kitchen, but she stood there staring when her fears were proven baseless. Charlie was standing in front of the stove with a skillet, his t-shirt smeared with flour and he was in the process of flinging pancakes into the air and trying to catch them, while a rather rotund Mexican woman, in her late 60's, watched from the doorway near the patio.

"Hi, honey," Charlie said brightly, "I'm just trying to get this pancake thing down, so I can cook you and Sarah breakfast. So far I'm not doing so well, but I have caught four…and a half," he looked into the sink. "Maybe just four," he continued animatedly, with no idea what Dani suspected.

She swallowed her jealously, but not before a flicker of it crossed her face as she quietly assessed the older woman, but Charlie saw it and his entire demeanor changed and became very cautious.

"Dani, this is Rosa," he offered very carefully. "Rosa is here to do some cleaning and maybe a little light cooking while you are on maternity leave. Rosa – Dani."

"Hello, Miss Dani," Rosa offered with a sweet grandmotherly smile.

Dani nodded, crossed the kitchen and grabbed Charlie by the shirtfront, telling him in an unmistakably angry tone, "We need to talk, now." Charlie slid the skillet onto the countertop and let his diminutive mate manhandle him through the foyer before digging in his heels.

"Hey, stop," he said gently, stilling her with his long reach and folding her into his chest. "I don't know what you think was going on in there, but it was pancakes for my girls - that's it," he answered her concerns as his breath caressed her ear. "Just breathe for me, baby."

He could feel her begin to cry before he heard it, but either way, he did not like it - the sound or feeling. He gently turned her in his arms. "Sweetheart, this is me. You know how bad I am at cooking. I just got Rosa to help out. Do you know how many maids I had to interview to find one as old and as round as she is tall who could speak English and has a green card? But if you want her gone, she's gone." He gathered her to her chest and then asked, "Is this upsetting you or is it something else?"

Dani still and then looked up at him, "I was insanely mad when I heard her laughing, I thought…I don't know what I thought, but I was…" she trailed off, biting her lip.

"Jealous?" he offered.

"No," she snapped back a little too fast, "Okay, maybe a little…yes dammit," she confessed.

"Honey, I would never cheat on you. You are the only woman I want and all that I need," he promised her softly, then added, "Besides you'd kill me in my sleep if I did something like that."

"Who says I'd wait for you to sleep?" she joked through her drying tears.

"That's my little demon," he urged, "I hope every one of my daughters is just like you, it'll probably kill me but there's nothing I'd like better. Are you sure you're okay with Rosa? Cause I can send her home?"

"No, don't," Dani relented, suddenly hungry. "Can she make enchiladas?"

"Hungry, sweetheart?" Charlie joked at Dani's constant state of hunger since she'd become pregnant.

"Hungry, angry, jealous, tired and apparently losing my fucking mind, Charlie," she mumbled into his chest.

Charlie gathered her head against his chest and raised his voice, "Rosa, Miss Dani would like some enchiladas. Do you think you could fix us some before you head home?"

"Yes, Mister Charlie," she answered, "can I clean up the pancakes?"

"How hungry are you?" Charlie whispered to his mate.

"I'm not eating anything you've been experimenting with or that's been on the floor," she grumbled.

"Yes, Rosa throw the pancakes out. Sorry about the mess," he apologized.

"Come on, honey. Let's get you out of those clothes and into a hot bath," he steered her toward their bedroom.

"Charlie," she stopped in her tracks remembering what brought her speeding home with such alacrity, "Mickey Rayborn's dead."

Charlie didn't show any reaction at all, then he said "Well, I guess he had it coming."

"Don't you want to know how? Unless you already know how…" She questioned with her arched brows and hand firmly on her hips. "Do you already know how Charlie?"

"Nope….don't know, don't care," he smiled. "If that old bastard is dead then it's a good day. Like I said, he had it coming."

"He fell," she advised, "from the roof of his penthouse."

Charlie whistled a downward spiraling tune intimating a long drop, but said nothing.

He then took her hand and tugged her towards the stairs. "But fell slipped, fell jumped or fell pushed no one knows. His BAC was three times the legal limit, but we all know he was a functioning alcoholic," she continued talking work as he led her up the stairs. "Are you listening to me?"

"Yes, I am. But as you well know, I swore to you that I would have nothing to do with harming him and that's a promise I have kept. You know where I was – here – in this house assembling that damned crib which was designed by the devil himself and then with you - all night, just like I am every night," he patiently reminded her of their evening and night.

She eyed him skeptically, but chose to let it go, "I fell asleep. Did you ever get the crib to go together right?"

"I don't know," he smiled, "are there supposed to be extra pieces?"

"Is it safe?" she acknowledge the change in subjects and they moved forward leaving Mickey Rayborn in the past.

"I'm gonna have a professional come out and see what I did wrong," he admitted.

"Oh, that has to hurt, Mister 'I can do it and I don't need the instructions'. What happened to that Zen story about the motorcycle?"

"That's mean spirited and it would hurt me if I thought you meant it," he kidded.

"Then you sleep in it, Crews. I'm not putting my kid in that until I am 100% certain it's safe," she warned.

"Uh… our kid," he reminded her, while steering her into their room. Dani had a habit of taking possession of things whether it was his car, his bed, his house or their daughter. It was a habit he would easily allow because he understood that you don't possess things, they possess you. "Take off those things and let's take a bath," he said pulling off his flour-streaked shirt and unzipping his jeans, while shucking his shoes.

"I hate how easy that is for you," she confided her envy.

"What?"

"Seeing your feet, reaching your feet…" she said wistfully. "These last few weeks seem to be lasting forever. Charlie, I can't remember what my toes look like."

He chuckled and snuggled close to her back, laying his hands over her swollen belly. "I'll paint them for you tonight, baby. In a few weeks, when that little girl smiles up at you, I promise you won't remember this part. Only the good endures, only that is worth remembering. Don't waste anymore time remembering bad things, reliving the past or agonizing over who killed Rayborn – his karma finally caught him – that's all."

"Do you ever wonder if our karma will catch us Charlie?" She questioned. It was an unusually introspective comment for her - a woman who did not like to talk about the motivation, purpose or direction in her own life. But now her concerns became not about herself, but about them, her family and their young daughter, who was arriving soon. By becoming part of something else, her family surpassed her own interests and Dani had found the balance her life was missing.

"Karma catches everyone…but," he offered. "Did you ever stop to think that everything that happened to us, that we did to ourselves that others did to us or for us was just karma from another lifetime? Maybe all our bad karma is gone and all that's left is good." He offered optimistically.

She seemed to truly consider his explanation and again just when he feared she was going to tell him he was full of shit, she accepted it. Maybe she accepted it because she believed him, maybe because she wanted it to be true, maybe because she was too tired to argue with him about it, but she gave in and let him massage the sore bottoms of her feet and her head lolled back against the curve of the big claw toothed tub he'd put in just so they could take baths together.

"Hey," he started with mischievous tone, "do you think two is too young for a pony?" Dani just groaned and Charlie smiled as he kissed her instep and offered a compromise, "Okay, maybe we wait till she's three."

'Where are we going to keep a horse?" she complained with half-hearted resistance. These arguments he invariably won because Charlie wanted to give his girls everything. She let him have most of these – the outcome was a foregone conclusion, but she enjoyed the lively debate and the faces Charlie made during them.

"Not a horse, just a pony. Ooh, we could build a corral at the orange grove. That's where horses live in a corral right? Or is it a barn? We could build one of those too," he explained animatedly as she watched the excitement and joy spread over his features, while she pretended not to notice him.

"How about you teach her to swim first, we already have a pool. Let's leave the equestrian events until later," she countered with a more balanced idea. He nodded and acquiesced.

Dani knew just as sure as the sun would rise tomorrow that Charlie was already building a barn in his head and filling it with ponies and nothing she could say would stop him. Dani remained the pragmatist of their pairing, and Charlie the optimist, surprising them both because in spite of everything life had thrown at him, his optimism remained. It was one of the things she loved best about her quirky, fruit eating, husband with the wildly red hair and pale blue eyes. He was resilient, happy and peaceful and if he killed Mickey Rayborn, she reasoned to quote Charlie "_the guy had it coming."_

_**THE END (for now)**_

_Author's Note: My incredible and eternal thanks to Jo Taylor (my beta from heaven) – and you should thank her too for keeping you from having to endure my atrocious punctuation and grammar. _

_Thanks to the patient readers who stuck with me, as I posted this in excruciatingly slow chunks. Next story I'm going to try writing start to finish and then posting instead of the work in progress this has been. To all of you who have been kind enough to review – I'm humbled you took the time to read and even more so that you commented. Thanks. _

_And a great big middle finger to NBC for cancelling the best show on TV. _


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